You need to broaden your thinking a bit:
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var·i·ance (vār-ns, vr-)
n.
1. a. The act of varying.
b. The state or quality of being variant or variable; a variation.
c. A difference between what is expected and what actually occurs.
2. The state or fact of differing or of being in conflict.
3. Law.
a. A discrepancy between two statements or documents in a proceeding.
b. License to engage in an act contrary to a usual rule: a zoning variance.
4. Statistics. The square of the standard deviation.
5. Chemistry. The number of thermodynamic variables, such as temperature and pressure, required to specify a state of equilibrium of a system, given by the phase rule </pre><hr />
I think you are thinking about #4 (or a more precise derivative). I think a lot of people, while thinking that they are talking about #4, are really talking about 1-c. If you allow for that possibility, you can consider them imprecise instead of just wrong. [img]/images/graemlins/wink.gif[/img]