variance vs difference

variance and difference both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
variance	Yes	No	No	No
difference	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, difference is a hypernym of variance; that is, difference is a word with a broader meaning than variance:

As nouns, difference is a hypernym of variance; that is, difference is a word with a broader meaning than variance:

Other hypernyms of variance include departure, deviation, divergence.

variance (noun)	difference (noun)
an activity that varies from a norm or standard	the quality of being unlike or dissimilar
an official dispensation to act contrary to a rule or regulation (typically a building regulation)	a disagreement or argument about something important
a difference between conflicting facts or claims or opinions	a variation that deviates from the standard or norm
the quality of being subject to variation	the number that remains after subtraction; the number that when added to the subtrahend gives the minuend
the second moment around the mean; the expected value of the square of the deviations of a random variable from its mean value	a significant change
discord that splits a group
an event that departs from expectations