garden-variety

adjective

gar·​den-va·​ri·​e·​ty ˈgär-dᵊn-və-ˈrī-ə-tē How to pronounce garden-variety (audio)

Examples of garden-variety in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Rife’s is a garden-variety strain of American contempt: cheap, lazy and sure to find broad agreement. Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 23 Nov. 2023 Over the past few weeks, prosecutors have cast the case as a garden-variety fraud investigation. J. Edward Moreno, New York Times, 25 Oct. 2023 What are American metropolises if not hotbeds for garden-variety burglars and loons? Amy X. Wang, New York Times, 26 Sep. 2023 And the prisoner was not some garden-variety guerrilla. Jay Nordlinger, National Review, 20 Sep. 2023 Inspired by serial killer Rodney Alcala’s 1978 appearance on The Dating Game, the film links his murders — he’s believed to have killed over 100 people, mostly women — with the garden-variety sexism faced by women everywhere. Vulture, 14 Sep. 2023 At first, Jean M Loftus, MD, seems like a garden-variety plastic surgeon. Parizaad Khan Sethi, Allure, 24 Aug. 2023 Brian is eventually revealed to be something worse than a garden-variety scumbag, a disappointing development in a film that felt more urgent as a testament to the way garden-variety scumbags get protected by communities every day. Vulture, 20 Feb. 2023 The chips are more in the light, crispy mode of wonton crisps than standard, garden-variety tortilla chips. Lawrence Specker | , al, 26 Jan. 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'garden-variety.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1928, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of garden-variety was in 1928

Dictionary Entries Near garden-variety

Cite this Entry

“Garden-variety.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/garden-variety. Accessed 8 Dec. 2023.

Kids Definition

garden-variety

adjective
: ordinary entry 2 sense 2, commonplace
not the flu, just a garden-variety cold
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
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