# variety

> English word · Noun · IPA /vəˈɹaɪ.ɪ.ti/ · frequency rank #1,846

## Definitions
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 specific variation of something.
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. A collection or number of different things.
11. 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.”).
12. The quality of being varied; diversity.
13. The kind of entertainment given in variety performances or shows; also, the production of, or performance in, variety performances or shows.

## 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); by surface analysis, various + -ety. 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”)

## Easily confused with
- **verity** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/variety-vs-verity)
- **varsity** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/variety-vs-varsity)
- **varied** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/varied-vs-variety)
- **varies** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/varies-vs-variety)
- **vanity** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/vanity-vs-variety)

## Common misspellings (10)
`avriety`, `vairety`, `vareity`, `varietty`, `varietyy`, `varieyt`, `varitey`, `varriety`, `vraiety`, `vvariety`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/variety