variety
UK /vəˈɹaɪ.ɪ.ti/ · US /vəˈɹaɪ.ə.ti/ noun
Forms varieties variete varietie
- noun A deviation or difference.
- noun A specific variation of something.
- noun (biology, loosely) An animal or plant (or a group of such animals or plants) with characteristics causing it to differ from other animals or plants of the same species; a strain or cultivar.
- noun (botany, taxonomy) A rank in a taxonomic classification below species and (if present) subspecies, and above form; hence, an organism of that rank. “Capsicum annuum var. glabriusculum is a variety of Capsicum annuum commonly known as chiltepin or Indian pepper.”
- noun (linguistics) A specific form of a language, neutral to whether that form is an accent, dialect, register, etc., and to its prestige level.
- noun (philately) A stamp, or set of stamps, which has one or more characteristics (such as colour, paper, etc.) differing from other stamps in the same issue, especially if such differences are intentionally introduced.
- noun A collection or number of different things.
- noun In universal algebra: an equational class; the class of all algebraic structures of a given signature, satisfying a given set of identities.
Synonyms
var. isolect lect languoid dialect array assortment spread equational variety variety of algebras disuniformity diversity heterogeneity irregularity multiformity nonconformity nonhomogeneity nonregularity nonuniformity unconformity mixture mixed bag miscellany miscellanea salmagundi smorgasbord potpourri motley diverseness multifariousness
Antonyms
uniformity sameness conformity homogeneousness homogeneity regularity uniformness
Etymology
From Middle French varieté (“variety”) (modern French variété (“variety; genre, type”)) or directly from its etymon Latin varietās (“difference; diversity, variety”) + English -ty (suffix forming abstract nouns from adjectives); by surface analysis, various + -ety. Varietās is derived from varius (“different, diverse, various; variegated”) (possibly ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- (“to abandon; to give out; to leave”)) + -tās (suffix forming feminine abstract nouns indicating a state of being). The English word displaced the native Old English mislīcnes.
Sense 1.3.2 (“total number of distinct states of a system; logarithm to the base 2 of the total number of distinct states of a system”) was coined by the English psychiatrist William Ross Ashby (1903–1972) in his work An Introduction to Cybernetics (1956).
Webster’s 1913
- noun The quality or state of being various; intermixture or succession of different things; diversity; multifariousness.
- noun That which is various. Specifically: -- (a) A number or collection of different things; a varied assortment; as, a variety of cottons and silks.
Etymology [L. varietas: cf. F. variété. See Various.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “variety”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details