variety

English

Wikipedia

Alternative forms

• variëty (rare)

Etymology

From French varieté, from Latin varietās (“difference, diversity”), from varius (“different, various”); see various.

Pronunciation

• enPR: və-rī'ə-ti, IPA: /vəˈraɪ.ə.ti/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Noun

variety (plural varieties)

1. A specific variation of something
2. A state of constant change
3. (taxonomy) A rank in a taxonomic classification, below species and subspecies.
4. (cybernetics) The total number of distinct states of a system.
5. (cybernetics) Logarithm of the base 2 of the total number of distinct states of a system.
6. (linguistics) a term used for a specific form of a language, neutral to whether that form is a dialect, accent, register, etc. and to its prestige level.
7. (algebra) The class of all algebraic structures of a given signature satisfying a given set of identities.

Hyponyms

• cultivar

Derived terms

• Abelian variety
• antivariety
• grape variety
• variety store
• variety show
• algebraic variety
• affine variety
• projective variety
• quasiprojective variety
• quasivariety

Related terms

• variant
• variation
• varietal
• variegate
• various
• vary

Translations

variation of something

Arabic: اختلاف (ar) (ikhtilaaf) m. Catalan: varietat (ca) f. Chinese: Mandarin: 品種 (zh), 品种 (zh) (pǐnzhǒng), 變種 (zh), 变种 (zh) (biànzhǒng) Dutch: verscheidenheid (nl) f. Finnish: muunnos (fi), laji (fi), tyyppi (fi) French: variété (fr) f. German: Sorte (de) f.

Italian: varietà (it) f. Latin: varietās (la) f. Persian: اختلاف (fa) (extelâf) Polish: rodzaj (pl) m. Romanian: varietate (ro) f., sort (ro) n., fel (ro) n., sortiment (ro) n. Russian: сорт (ru) (sort) m., вид (ru) (vid) m., разновидность (ru) (raznovídnost') n. Scottish Gaelic: caochladh (gd) m. Spanish: variedad (es) f.

state of constant change

Chinese: Mandarin: 多樣性 (zh), 多样性 (zh) (duōyàngxìng) Finnish: muutos (fi), muutostila (fi) French: variété (fr) f.

German: Vielfältigkeit (de) f. Japanese: 多様性 (ja) (たようせい, tayōsei) Russian: разнообразие (ru) (raznoobrázije) n. Spanish: variedad (es) f.

rank in a taxonomic classification

Catalan: varietat (ca) f. Czech: odrůda (cs) f., varieta (cs) f. Finnish: muunnos (fi) Italian: varietà (it) f.

Polish: odmiana (pl) f. Romanian: varietate (ro) f. Russian: вид (ru) (vid) m., разновидность (ru) (raznovídnost') f.

cybernetics: total number of distinct states of a system

cybernetics: logarithm of the base 2 of the total number of distinct states of a system

linguistics: term used for a specific form of a language

algebra: class of algebraic structures

See also

• species
• (cybernetics: logarithm): information entropy

External links

• variety in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
• variety in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911