When we can make a better prediction of the outcome variable if we knew something about the explanatory variable; accounting for variation in the outcome variable by using variation in another variable.
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leftover variation
Leftover variation is variation in an outcome variable that remains after having accounted for variation due to at least one explanatory variable.
explained variation
Explained variation is the portion of the total variation we were able to attribute to a variable.
unexplained variation
Unexplained variation is everything included in the "other stuff" part of a word equation.
sampling variation
Sampling variation is the variation that occurs from sample to sample due to the fact that no sample is a perfect representation of the population; can be biased or unbiased; also known as sampling error.
explanatory variable
Explanatory variable is a variable we use to explain variation in an outcome variable.