variety

noun

va·​ri·​e·​ty və-ˈrī-ə-tē 

plural varieties

1

: the quality or state of having different forms or types : multifariousness

2

: a number or collection of different things especially of a particular class : assortment

3

a

: something differing from others of the same general kind : sort

b

: any of various groups of plants or animals ranking below a species : subspecies

4

: variety show

Synonyms

• diversity
• diverseness

Examples of variety in a Sentence

I was surprised by the variety of the choices that were available.

My life needs more variety.

Recent Examples on the Web

This was flanked by day-one support from hardware companies, including Nvidia and AMD, and cloud providers, like Microsoft Azure and Amazon AWS, to ensure that the model ran smoothly on a variety of systems. —IEEE Spectrum, 14 Aug. 2025

Google came back with a variety of domestic and international destinations that fit my description. —Zach Wichter, USA Today, 14 Aug. 2025

This is particularly important for the healthcare field, especially for enterprises use-cases, as healthcare data is largely unstructured and frequently found in a variety of different modalities. —Forbes.com, 14 Aug. 2025

Many brands also offer brewers in a variety of colors and finishes. —Bestreviews, Chicago Tribune, 14 Aug. 2025

Word History

Etymology

borrowed from Middle French or Latin; Middle French varieté, borrowed from Latin varietāt-, varietās, from varius "having contrasting colors, various entry 1" + -etāt- -etās, variant of -itās -ity

First Known Use

15th century, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Phrases Containing variety

• garden-variety
• sub-variety
• variety is the spice of life
• variety meat
• variety show
• variety store

Rhymes for variety

• anxiety
• impiety
• propriety
• satiety
• sobriety
• society
• antianxiety
• intersociety
• contrariety
• impropriety
• inebriety
• notoriety

Kids Definition

variety

noun

va·​ri·​ety

və-ˈrī-ət-ē

plural varieties

1

: the quality or state of having different forms or types

2

: a number or collection of different things : assortment

3

a

: something differing from others of the class to which it belongs

b

: any of various groups of plants or animals within a species that are separated from other groups by characteristics not constant enough or too unimportant to separate species

Medical Definition

variety

noun

va·​ri·​e·​ty və-ˈrī-ət-ē 

plural varieties

: any of various groups of plants or animals ranking below a species : subspecies