correlate

Formscorrelates, correlating, correlated

Pluralcorrelates

1. 1
   verbintransitive

   To be connected with something else so that changes in one tend to go along with changes in the other.

   Like the rise and fall of tides tracking the phases of the moon.

   Rising temperatures correlate strongly with shrinking ice cover.

   Across the regions studied, income and life expectancy correlated.

   Similarcorrespond

   Note

   Here the things themselves do the work, and nobody is doing the comparing. With is the usual partner ("correlates with the rising number"), and the passive be correlated with says much the same. Edward Burnett Tylor in 1871 could also write that doctrine and worship "correlate as theory and practice." To say two things correlate is to say they vary together, not that one causes the other.

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To compare things and bring them into a relationship based on their matching features.

   Like a detective lining up clues to see which ones point the same way.

   The researchers correlated rainfall figures with crop yields over ten years.

   Analysts correlate sales numbers with weather patterns to predict demand.

   Similarcompare, match, relate

   Note

   The word was built in English from cor- and relate. The prefix is the "together" of correspond, so to correlate is to relate things to each other rather than to some outside standard. This active use belongs to whoever does the comparing, such as researchers or analysts. It takes two terms joined by with: you correlate one set of figures with another.

3. 3
   nouncountable

   One of a pair of things linked by a correlation, each matching or answering to the other.

   Like two dancers whose movements mirror each other.

   Brain scans revealed a neural correlate of conscious awareness.

   Income and education are common correlates of upward mobility.

   Note

   The noun names one partner in such a pairing, and it usually travels with of or for: a neural correlate of awareness, or antibodies as "a strong correlate for protection" against Covid-19. In scientific prose it often marks a measurable sign that tracks something harder to observe directly. Correlative means the same and can stand in for it.

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