Word
variety
Phoneticsva·ri·ety
US/vɝˈaɪəti/
UK/vəɹˈaɪəti/
Definitions
01a range of different things
n. a lot of different things of the same general type.
n. a collection or number of different things within a particular category. Often used with the preposition 'of'.
“The shop sells a wide variety of fresh bread every morning.”
“The university offers a variety of extracurricular activities, ranging from competitive sports to niche academic societies.”
Usage
When 'a variety of' is the subject, the verb is usually plural because the focus is on the many items.
Pitfall
There are a variety of reason for this.
There are a variety of reasons for this.
The phrase 'a variety of' must be followed by a plural noun.
Synonyms
Antonyms
02the quality of being different
n. the quality of being different or having many parts, which makes something interesting.
n. the quality or state of being varied or diverse; the absence of monotony.
“I like my job because there is a lot of variety in my daily tasks.”
“The composer introduced rhythmic variety into the second movement to prevent the repetitive melody from becoming tedious.”
Usage
Often functions as an uncountable noun in this sense.
03a specific type
n. a specific type of a plant, animal, or thing.
n. a specific sort, kind, or type; in biology, a taxonomic rank below species.
“This specific variety of tomato grows very well in cold weather.”
“Botanists identified a rare variety of orchid that only blooms during the peak of the rainy season.”
Technical
04entertainment show
n. a type of entertainment with many different acts, like singing, dancing, and magic.
n. a genre of entertainment consisting of a series of unrelated performances, such as comedy, music, and acrobatics.
“We watched an old-fashioned variety show on television last night.”
“The theatre's winter programme features a traditional variety performance designed to appeal to families and tourists alike.”
General-service
Synonyms
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). Cognates * Galician variedade (“variety”) * Italian varietà (“difference; variety”) * Portuguese variedade (“variety”) * Spanish variedad (“breed; variety”)
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Collocations
Idioms
common or garden variety — An ordinary, standard kind.
garden variety — Ordinary, common, or unexceptional.
Domains
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/variety