Va·ri·a·tion n.
 1. The act of varying; a partial change in the form, position, state, or qualities of a thing; modification; alteration; mutation; diversity; deviation; as, a variation of color in different lights; a variation in size; variation of language.
    The essences of things are conceived not capable of any such variation.   --Locke.
 2. Extent to which a thing varies; amount of departure from a position or state; amount or rate of change.
 3. Gram. Change of termination of words, as in declension, conjugation, derivation, etc.
 4. Mus. Repetition of a theme or melody with fanciful embellishments or modifications, in time, tune, or harmony, or sometimes change of key; the presentation of a musical thought in new and varied aspects, yet so that the essential features of the original shall still preserve their identity.
 5. Alg. One of the different arrangements which can be made of any number of quantities taking a certain number of them together.
 Annual variation Astron., the yearly change in the right ascension or declination of a star, produced by the combined effects of the precession of the equinoxes and the proper motion of the star.
 Calculus of variations. See under Calculus.
 Variation compass. See under Compass.
 Variation of the moon Astron., an inequality of the moon's motion, depending on the angular distance of the moon from the sun. It is greater at the octants, and zero at the quadratures.
 Variation of the needle Geog. & Naut., the angle included between the true and magnetic meridians of a place; the deviation of the direction of a magnetic needle from the true north and south line; -- called also declination of the needle.
 Syn: -- Change; vicissitude; variety; deviation.

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 Dec·li·na·tion n.
 1. The act or state of bending downward; inclination; as, declination of the head.
 2. The act or state of falling off or declining from excellence or perfection; deterioration; decay; decline. “The declination of monarchy.”
 Summer . . . is not looked on as a time
 Of declination or decay.   --Waller.
 3. The act of deviating or turning aside; oblique motion; obliquity; withdrawal.
    The declination of atoms in their descent.   --Bentley.
    Every declination and violation of the rules.   --South.
 4. The act or state of declining or refusing; withdrawal; refusal; averseness.
    The queen's declination from marriage.   --Stow.
 5. Astron. The angular distance of any object from the celestial equator, either northward or southward.
 6. Dialing The arc of the horizon, contained between the vertical plane and the prime vertical circle, if reckoned from the east or west, or between the meridian and the plane, reckoned from the north or south.
 7. Gram. The act of inflecting a word; declension. See Decline, v. t., 4.
 Angle of declination, the angle made by a descending line, or plane, with a horizontal plane.
 Circle of declination, a circle parallel to the celestial equator.
 Declination compass Physics, a compass arranged for finding the declination of the magnetic needle.
 Declination of the compass or Declination of the needle, the horizontal angle which the magnetic needle makes with the true north-and-south line.

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