8 letters · 13 points in Scrabble
noun an event that departs from expectations
noun discord that splits a group
noun the second moment around the mean; the expected value of the square of the deviations of a random variable from its mean value
originFrom Middle English variance, variaunce, equivalent to vary + -ance, from Old French variance or directly from Anglo-Latin variaunce, veriaunce, wariaunce; all from Latin variantia.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0