variation

in a sentence

grouped by contextual meaning

I've heard three variations of that joke.

Over the years there have been many variations of the Snickers Bar such as the Snickers Almond bar and Snickers Ice Cream bar.

Highly empathetic people are more likely to have a gene variation associated with trust and caring.

It was a sweltering afternoon, but Roy had resigned himself to the fact that there was no change of seasons in South Florida, only mild variations of summer.  (source) Carl Hiassen, Hoot, 2002

I stopped for a long time to let my nerves settle, then leaned back from my tools and stared up at the face above, searching for a hint of solid ice, for some variation in the underlying rock strata, for anything that would allow passage over the frosted slabs.  (source) Jon Krakauer, Into the Wild, 1996

A breeze would blow them over, and the world is filled with more than breezes: diseases and disasters, monsters and pain in a thousand variations.  (source) Madeline Miller, Circe, 2018

Every other sin is a variation of theft.  (source) Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner, 2003

While we were in Midland, Mom painted dozens of variations and studies of the Joshua tree.  (source) Jeannette Walls, The Glass Castle, 2005

It was a variation on the shared-gaze exercises, and all of the dogs knew how it worked.†  (source) David Wroblewski, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle, 2008

Over the next century this tune and its variations would be deployed in a succession of mostly cheesy movies, typically as an accompaniment to the sinuous emergence of a cobra from a basket.  (source) Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City, 2003

Apparently, he was walking down the hallway when he happened to hear a Mozart Variation emanating from the ballroom.†  (source) Amor Towles, A Gentleman in Moscow, 2016

The music went on and on, minute after minute, with astonishing variations, never once repeating itself, almost as though the bird were deliberately showing off its virtuosity.  (source) George Orwell, 1984, 1949

Later I even borrowed Nikki's clothes to show some further variation, thinking that nobody would notice the zippers at the bottoms of the jeans or the way the hips hugged a little tight.†  (source) Wes Moore, The Other Wes Moore, 2010

The variation in medical prices can be shocking.

They studied regional language variation by analyzing Twitter data.

When all other factors are the same, WalletHub's study found an average of a 65% variation in the cost of auto insurance depending upon whether the insured has excellent credit or no credit history.

This one was thick, this one smooth, this one bearded with a hooked nose and narrow chin. ... It made me dizzy to realize that this was but a fraction of a fraction of all the men the world had bred. How could such variation endure, such endless iteration of minds and faces?  (source) Madeline Miller, Circe, 2018

With many variations, suggested by the nature of his building materials, diversity of climate, and a different mode of social life, Governor Bellingham had planned his new habitation after the residences of gentlemen of fair estate in his native land.  (source) Nathanial Hawthorne, The Scarlet Letter, 1850

I'm not good with change right now I can't even yet make a variation in my mile running course.  (source) Holly Goldberg Sloan, Counting by 7s, 2013

My most absorbing interests at the present time are etymologies of ancient languages, the newer works on the calculus of variations, and Hindu history.  (source) Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon -- Novel, 1966

He regards my present trouble as a variation in form of the troubles which led me to come abroad.  (source) Erik Larson, The Devil in the White City, 2003

I was shocked to learn that the only ancient languages he could read were Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, and that he knows almost nothing of mathematics beyond the elementary levels of the calculus of variations.  (source) Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon -- Short Story, 1959

"How the pleasing plague had stolen on him" he could not say; and before he had expressed the same sentiment with a little variation of words three times over, his sister eagerly interrupted him with, "Ah, my dear Henry, and this is what took you to London!"  (source) Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, 1814

Little in mathematics beyond the elementary level of calculus of variations, and nothing at all about Banach algebra or Riemannian manifolds.  (source) Daniel Keyes, Flowers for Algernon -- Novel, 1966

She began to feel that she had not yet gone through all the changes of opinion and sentiment which the progress of time and variation of circumstances occasion in this world of changes.  (source) Jane Austen, Mansfield Park, 1814