diverse
UK /daɪˈvɜːs/ · US /daɪˈvɝs/ adjective, adverb, verb
Forms diverses diversing diversed diuers divers
- adjective Consisting of different elements; various.
- adjective Capable of or having various forms in different situations or at different times; multiform.
- adjective Chiefly preceded by a descriptive word: of a community, organization, etc.: composed of people with a variety of different demographic characteristics such as ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or socioeconomic status; especially, having a sizeable representation of people who are minorities in the community, organization, etc.
- adjective (nonstandard, by extension) Of a person: belonging to a minority group.
- adjective Not the same; different, dissimilar, distinct.
- adjective Differing from what is good or right, or beneficial; bad, evil; harmful.
- adjective Having different colours; mottled, variegated.
- adjective (rare) Causing one to be indecisive between different viewpoints.
- adverb (obsolete) Synonym of diversely (“in different directions”).
- verb To make (something) different or varied in form or quality; to alter, to change, to vary.
- verb (business, finance) To make the scope of (business, investments, etc.) different or varied, especially so as to balance and mitigate risks.
- verb (intransitive, obsolete, rare) To go a different route or way from someone else; to diverge, to separate.
Synonyms
divers manifold catholic dishomogeneous diversified eclectic heterogeneous liberal miscellaneous mixed motley multifarious multifold sundry variable varied various different differing dissimilar
Antonyms
homogeneous invariable of a piece onefold samely uniform uniformal unmixed unvaried unvarying
Etymology
The adjective is derived from Middle English divers, diverse (“different, divergent”), from Anglo-Norman divers, Anglo-Norman divers, and Old French divers (“different; of various kinds”) (modern French divers), and directly from their etymon Latin dīversus (“different, diverse”), an adjective use of the perfect passive participle of dīvertō (“to divert, turn away”), from dī- (variant of dis- (prefix meaning ‘apart, in two’)) + vertō (“to turn”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to rotate; to turn”)). Doublet of divert.
The adverb is derived from Middle English diverse (“differently; at various times”), from divers, diverse (adjective) (see above).
From Middle English diversen (“to differ, diverge; to become different, change; to vary; to change or vary (something); to make a distinction, distinguish; to divert”), from Anglo-Norman diverser, Middle French diverser, and Old French diverser (“to alter, change; to differ, diverge; to disagree”), from Late Latin diversare (“to differ”), and then either:
* a frequentative form of Latin dīvertere, the present active infinitive of dīvertō (see etymology 1); or
* from dī- (variant of dis- (prefix meaning ‘apart, in two’)) + versāre (the present active infinitive of versō (“to alter, change; to keep turning, whirl”), a frequentative form of vertō: see etymology 1).
Etymology 2 sense 1 (“synonym of diversify”) became obsolete in the 16th century, and was probably recoined in the 20th century.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Different; unlike; dissimilar; distinct; separate.
- adjective Capable of various forms; multiform.
- adverb In different directions; diversely.
- verb To turn aside. [Obs.]
Etymology [The same word as divers. See Divers.]
Sources: Wiktionary · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “diverse”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details