variety

Meaning

1. A deviation or difference.
2. A specific variation of something.
3. A specific variation of something.
4. A specific variation of something.
5. A specific variation of something.
6. A collection or number of different things.
7. A collection or number of different things.
8. A collection or number of different things.
9. A collection or number of different things.
10. 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.”).
11. The quality of being varied; diversity.
12. The kind of entertainment given in variety performances or shows; also, the production of, or performance in, variety performances or shows.

Hyphenated as

va‧ri‧e‧ty

Pronounced as (IPA)

/vəˈɹaɪ.ɪ.ti/

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).
cognates
* Galician variedade (“variety”)
* Italian varietà (“difference; variety”)
* Portuguese variedade (“variety”)
* Spanish variedad (“breed; variety”)

Sentences

There are a variety of different types , probably not homologous , and serving various functions .

Henson has played in a variety of positions including fly-half , fullback and inside centre .