as in ordeal
a negative event or circumstance that is common to a particular setting or situation and is usually beyond one's control
The vicissitudes of medical school proved too much for the anxious student.
Related Words
Relevance
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of vicissitude
People who pay attention to the vicissitudes of Tesla CEO Elon Musk know that the man is not always serious on Twitter.
—
Aarian Marshall, Wired, 10 May 2020
The vicissitudes of history always challenge us in new and often confounding ways; that’s in the nature of things.
—Jon Meacham, New York Times, 24 Mar. 2020
All of the biggest corporate mergers, the deals that determine the vicissitudes of our global markets, happen within their walls.
—Rachel Epstein, Marie Claire, 30 Mar. 2020
Sport is usually a constant -- a field, court, track or course that is resistant to the vicissitudes of the world around us.
—George Ramsay, CNN, 12 Mar. 2020
See All Example Sentences for vicissitude
Aarian Marshall, Wired, 10 May 2020
The vicissitudes of history always challenge us in new and often confounding ways; that’s in the nature of things.
—Jon Meacham, New York Times, 24 Mar. 2020
All of the biggest corporate mergers, the deals that determine the vicissitudes of our global markets, happen within their walls.
—Rachel Epstein, Marie Claire, 30 Mar. 2020
Sport is usually a constant -- a field, court, track or course that is resistant to the vicissitudes of the world around us.
—George Ramsay, CNN, 12 Mar. 2020
See All Example Sentences for vicissitude
Recent Examples of Synonyms for vicissitude
Noun
-
The ordeal happened at Carver’s Gap, near the North Carolina-Tennessee border and a roughly 65-mile drive northeast from Asheville.—
Charlotte Observer,
Charlotte Observer,
3 July 2025
-
The whole ordeal has been frustrating because the rickshaw had sentimental value.—
Jade Jackson,
IndyStar,
2 July 2025
Noun
-
After the gauntlet of an audition for the first film, Meg and Milo have become household names for their young fans.—
Scott King,
Forbes.com,
2 July 2025
-
Canada qualified for the 2022 World Cup — the nation’s first appearance in the tournament since 1986 — by winning Concacaf’s qualifying gauntlet via a goal difference tiebreaker, notching meaningful wins over Mexico and the United States on home soil.—
Jeff Rueter,
New York Times,
30 June 2025
Noun
-
The structure is not dissimilar from a classic episode of another FX comedy-drama hybrid, Atlanta, where Paper Boi’s attempt to get a haircut from his favorite barber led him on an odyssey of crime and misfortune.—
Alan Sepinwall,
Rolling Stone,
27 June 2025
-
Compounding those misfortunes, Elio emerged into the jet wash of How to Train Your Dragon, another family film and the fourth installment of a blockbuster franchise with more than two decades of audience goodwill that is certain to rank among the year’s most lucrative movies.—
Chris Lee,
Vulture,
24 June 2025
Noun
-
The policy, while inevitably controversial, was meant to correct for the nearly fifty years of brutal privations that Black South Africans endured under apartheid.—
Jonathan Blitzer,
New Yorker,
1 June 2025
-
But whereas the first generation of Chinese entrepreneurs grew up poor and were happy to wring a livelihood from cheap imitations, today’s tech graduates were spared the privations of their parents and yearn for something more meaningful.—
Charlie Campbell,
Time,
29 May 2025
Cite this Entry
“Vicissitude.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/vicissitude. Accessed 9 Jul. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share