variety

English Online Dictionary. What means variety‎? What does variety mean?

English

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). 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).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: və-rīʹĭ-tē, IPA^(key): /vəˈɹaɪ.ɪ.ti/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /vəˈɹaɪ.ə.ti/, /-ɾi/
• Rhymes: -aɪɪti
• Hyphenation: va‧ri‧e‧ty

Noun

variety (countable and uncountable, plural varieties)

1. (countable)
   1. A deviation or difference.
   2. A specific variation of something.
      2. (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.
         1. (botany, taxonomy) A rank in a taxonomic classification below species and (if present) subspecies, and above form; hence, an organism of that rank.

            Synonym: (abbreviation) var.

      3. (linguistics) A specific form of a language, neutral to whether that form is an accent, dialect, register, etc., and to its prestige level; an isolect or lect.
      4. (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.
   3. A collection or number of different things.

      Synonyms: array, assortment

      Antonym: uniformity

      1. (algebra)
         1. In universal algebra: an equational class; the class of all algebraic structures of a given signature, satisfying a given set of identities.

            Synonyms: equational variety, variety of algebras

         2. (algebraic geometry) Ellipsis of algebraic variety (“the set of solutions of a given system of polynomial equations over the real or complex numbers; any of certain generalisations of such a set that preserves the geometric intuition implicit in the original definition”).
      2. (cybernetics) The total number of distinct states of a system; also, the logarithm to the base 2 of the total number of distinct states of a system. [from 1956.]
   4. (radio, television, theater) Ellipsis of variety performance. or variety show (“a type of entertainment featuring a succession of short, unrelated performances by various artistes such as (depending on the medium) acrobats, comedians, dancers, magicians, singers, etc.”).
2. (uncountable)
   1. The quality of being varied; diversity.

      Synonyms: see Thesaurus:nonuniformity

      Antonyms: sameness; see also Thesaurus:uniformity
   2. (radio, television, theater) The kind of entertainment given in variety performances or shows; also, the production of, or performance in, variety performances or shows.

Usage notes

Variety can be preceded with either a singular or plural form of the verb be: “there is a variety of options to choose from” and “there are a variety of options to choose from” are both considered grammatical. However, in the construction variety of [something], the word variety is generally followed by a plural noun and a plural form of be: “a variety of flavours were evident in the dish”.

Alternative forms

• variete (obsolete)
• varietie (obsolete)
• variëty (rare)

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

• (cybernetics: logarithm): information entropy

References

Further reading

• algebraic variety on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• variety (botany) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• variety (cybernetics) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• variety (linguistics) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• variety (universal algebra) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• variety (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “variety”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “variety”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.