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Mutation vs Variability - What's the difference?

mutation | variability |

As nouns the difference between mutation and variability

is that mutation is mutation while variability is the state or characteristic of being variable.

mutation

Alternative forms

* (abbreviation)

Noun

(en noun)
  • Any alteration or change.
  • (genetics) Any heritable change of the base-pair sequence of genetic material.
  • * {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= David Van Tassel], [http://www.americanscientist.org/authors/detail/lee-dehaan Lee DeHaan
  • , title= Wild Plants to the Rescue , volume=101, issue=3, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Plant breeding is always a numbers game.
  • A mutant.
  • (linguistics) An alteration a particular sound of a word, especially the initial consonant, which is triggered by the word's morphological or syntactic context and not by its phonological context.
  • (rare) A (collective noun) for a collection of thrushes.
  • * 1984 , Virginia Commission of Game and Inland Fisheries, Virginia Wildlife , volume 45:
  • Birdwatchers would enjoy a host of sparrows, a herd of swans, a descent of woodpeckers, a herd of wrens, and mutation of thrushes.
  • * 2010 , Doug Bennet, Tim Tiner, The Complete Up North: A Guide to Ontario's Wilderness from Black Flies to the Northern Lights , page 57:
  • Names for a group: A flute or mutation of thrushes.
  • * 2013 , Jason Sacher, A Compendium of Collective Nouns: From an Armory of Aardvarks to a Zeal of Zebras , page 196:
  • A Mutation of Thrushes
    The authors of the books of venery were not predicting Darwin with this term, but taking a cue from a common fable of the time.

    variability

    English

    Noun

    (variabilities)
  • the state or characteristic of being variable
  • the degree to which a thing is variable. In data or statistics this is often a measurement of distance from the mean or a description of data range.
  • Synonyms

    * variableness