correlates

1. 1
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of correlate.

   Education level often correlates with higher lifetime earnings.

   The model correlates rainfall data with annual crop yields.

   Note

   A verb form with two jobs, because the verb is both transitive and intransitive. When a person or method is the subject, it does the relating: an analyst correlates one set of figures with another. When a measure is the subject, it simply stands in relation to something else: income correlates with education. The identical spelling is also the plural noun, meaning the things so related.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of correlate.

   Researchers identified several biological correlates of chronic stress.

   The paper discusses the social correlates of educational attainment.

   Note

   The singular names one member of a matched pair, much like its near-synonym correlative. The plural can therefore mean both halves of such a pair or, in research prose, a whole set of factors that vary alongside one phenomenon. The phenomenon comes after of, as in correlates of stress. Because the word rests on correlation, it signals association rather than cause.

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