# Univariate

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Involving a single variable

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In [mathematics](/source/Mathematics), a **univariate** object is an [expression](/source/Expression_(mathematics)), [equation](/source/Equation), [function](/source/Function_(mathematics)) or [polynomial](/source/Polynomial) involving only one [variable](/source/Variable_(mathematics)). Objects involving more than one variable are *[multivariate](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/multivariate)*. In some cases the distinction between the univariate and multivariate cases is fundamental; for example, the [fundamental theorem of algebra](/source/Fundamental_theorem_of_algebra) and [Euclid's algorithm for polynomials](/source/Euclid's_algorithm_for_polynomials) are fundamental properties of univariate polynomials that cannot be generalized to multivariate polynomials.

In [statistics](/source/Statistics), a univariate [distribution](/source/Frequency_distribution) characterizes one variable, although it can be applied in other ways as well. For example, univariate data are composed of a single [scalar](/source/Scalar_(mathematics)) component. In [time series analysis](/source/Time_series_analysis), the whole time series is the "variable": a [univariate time series](/source/Univariate_time_series) is the series of values over time of a single quantity. Correspondingly, a "multivariate time series" characterizes the changing values over time of several quantities. In some cases, the terminology is ambiguous, since the values within a univariate time series may be treated using certain types of [multivariate statistical analyses](/source/Multivariate_statistics) and may be represented using [multivariate distributions](/source/Joint_distributions).

In addition to the question of scaling, a criterion (variable) in univariate statistics can be described by two important measures (also key figures or parameters): Location & Variation.[1]

- Measures of Location Scales (e.g. mode, median, arithmetic mean) describe in which area the data is arranged centrally.

- Measures of Variation (e.g. span, interquartile distance, standard deviation) describe how similar or different the data are scattered.

## See also

- [Arity](/source/Arity)

- [Bivariate](/source/Bivariate_(disambiguation))

- [Multivariate](/source/Multivariate_(disambiguation))

- [Univariate analysis](/source/Univariate_analysis)

- [Univariate binary model](/source/Univariate_binary_model)

- [Univariate distribution](/source/Univariate_distribution)

## References

1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Grünwald, Robert. ["Univariate Statistik in SPSS"](https://novustat.com/statistik-glossar/univariate-statistik-in-spss.html). *novustat.com* (in German). Retrieved 29 October 2019.

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