# variety

Pronunciation: US say "vuh-RY-uh-tee" /vəˈɹaɪ.ə.ti/; UK say "vuh-RY-i-tee" /vəˈɹaɪ.ɪ.ti/

## Noun

1. A number or collection of different things, especially ones that are not all the same.
   - Simple: A group of many different things gathered together.
   - _The museum displays a variety of artifacts from across the ancient world._
   - _Volunteers tackled a variety of tasks, from cooking to repairs._
2. The quality of being made up of many different kinds; diversity.
   - Simple: The state of having many different things, not all the same.
   - _The festival's strength lies in the sheer variety of its performers._
   - _Critics praised the album for its variety, ranging from ballads to dance tracks._
3. A particular form or version of something that differs from others of its kind.
   - Simple: A particular type or form of something.
   - _Texas hold'em is the most popular variety of poker in the United States._
   - _The company also sells the soup in a low-sodium variety for customers who are watching their salt._
4. In biology, a group of plants or animals within one species that differs from the rest in small inherited ways; in botany, the formal rank below species (or subspecies).
   - Simple: A type of plant or animal that is a little different from others of the same species.
   - _Botanists described a drought-resistant variety of maize._
   - _The orchard grows several varieties of heritage apple._
5. Entertainment made up of a series of short, different acts such as songs, comedy, and dances, or a show of this kind.
   - Simple: Entertainment with short acts such as singing, dancing, and comedy, or a show with these acts.
   - _British television kept variety alive long after its music-hall roots faded._
   - _She performed in variety throughout the 1950s, sharing bills with acrobats and magicians._
6. A specific form of a language: whether an accent, dialect, or register, and regardless of its prestige; an isolect or lect.
   - Simple: A particular form of a language, such as a dialect or an accent.
   - _Linguists study how each variety of a language changes over time._
   - _Caribbean varieties of English have distinct grammar and vocabulary._
7. Difference or departure from a standard or from something else, rather than a mix of many kinds; variation or deviation.
   - Simple: A difference from what is normal or from something else.
   - _On closer study, the biologists found less variety between the two populations than they had expected._
   - _The samples showed almost no variety from one batch to the next._

## Other meanings

- (noun) Short for algebraic variety.
- (noun) A stamp, or set of stamps, with one or more features (color, paper, a plate flaw, and so on) that differ from others in the same issue.
- (noun) In cybernetics, the total number of distinct states a system can take; also, the base-2 logarithm of that number.
- (noun) In universal algebra, the class of every algebraic structure with a given signature that satisfies a specified set of identities; an equational class.

## Origin

The word came from Middle French varieté or directly from its Latin source varietās ('difference, diversity, variety'), formed with the English suffix -ty; by surface analysis it is various + -ety. Varietās comes from varius ('different, diverse, various'), possibly going all the way back to Proto-Indo-European *h₁weh₂- ('to abandon; to leave'). It replaced the native Old English word mislīcnes.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/variety (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).