Gradient
In simple terms, the variation in space of any quantity can be represented (eg graphically) by a slope. The gradient represents the steepness and direction of that slope.
In vector calculus, the gradient of a scalar field is a vector field that points in the direction of the greatest rate of increase of the scalar field, and whose magnitude is that rate of increase.
A generalization of the gradient for functions on a Euclidean space that have values in another Euclidean space is the Jacobian. A further generalization for a function from one Banach space to another is the Fréchet derivative.