various

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French varieux, from Latin varius (“manifold, diverse, various, parti-colored, variegated, also changing, changeable, fickle, etc.”). By surface analysis, vary +‎ -ous.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈvɛəɹi.əs/
• (General American, without the Mary–marry–merry merger) IPA^(key): /ˈvɛəɹi.əs/, (among some speakers) /ˈvæɹi.əs/

  • Audio (US, without the Mary–marry–merry merger); /ˈvɛəɹi.əs/:

    (file)

  • Audio (US, without the Mary–marry–merry merger); /ˈvæɹi.əs/:

    (file)

• (General American, Mary–marry–merry merger) IPA^(key): /ˈvɛɹi.əs/

  • Audio (US, Mary–marry–merry merger):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛəɹi.əs, -æɹi.əs

Determiner

various

2. More than one (of an indeterminate set of things).

   Various books have been taken.

   There are various ways to fix the problem.

   You have broken various of the rules.

Adjective

various (not comparable)

1. Having a broad range (of different elements).

   The reasons are various.

   • 1904–1905, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], “The Affair at the Novelty Theatre”, in The Case of Miss Elliott, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, published 1905, →OCLC; republished as popular edition, London: Greening & Co., 1909, OCLC 11192831, quoted in The Case of Miss Elliott (ebook no. 2000141h.html), Australia: Project Gutenberg of Australia, February 2020:

     For this scene, a large number of supers are engaged, and in order to further swell the crowd, practically all the available stage hands have to ‘walk on’ dressed in various coloured dominoes, and all wearing masks.

   • 1922, Maneckji Nusservanji Dhalla, Zoroastrian Civilization‎, page 114:

     The penalty for the breach of various contracts is scourging with stripes […]

2. (dated) That varies or differs from others; variant; different.

   a various reading of a Biblical text

Synonyms

• diverse, manifold, miscellaneous, motley, multifarious, sundry; See also Thesaurus:heterogeneous

Antonyms

• monotonous

Derived terms

• many and various
• various and sundry
• variously
• various reading

Related terms

• variant
• variation
• variegate
• variety
• variously
• vary

Translations

an eclectic range of — see also diverse,‎ distinct,‎ different,‎ multiple

Arabic: مُخْتَلِف (ar) (muḵtalif), مُتَنَوَّع (mutanawwaʕ), شَتَّى (šattā) Armenian: տարբեր (hy) (tarber) Azerbaijani: müxtəlif (az), cürbəcür Bashkir: төрлө (törlö) Basque: askotariko Belarusian: ро́зны m (rózny) Bulgarian: разли́чен (bg) (razlíčen), ра́зен (bg) (rázen) Burmese: အဖုံဖုံ (my) (a.hpumhpum) Catalan: varis (ca) Chinese: Mandarin: 各種（的） / 各种（的） (zh) (gèzhǒng de) Czech: rozdílný (cs), rozličný, různý (cs), rozmanitý (cs) Danish: forskellige pl Dutch: verscheiden (nl), uiteenlopend (nl), divers (nl) Esperanto: diversa Finnish: eri (fi), erilainen (fi); vaihteleva (fi), moninainen (fi) French: divers (fr) Georgian: სხვადასხვა (sxvadasxva), განსხვავებული (gansxvavebuli), სხვადასხვაგვარი (sxvadasxvagvari), სხვადასხვანაირი (sxvadasxvanairi), ნაირ-ნაირი (nair-nairi), მრავალფეროვანი (mravalperovani) German: verschiedene (de) Greek: διάφορος (el) (diáforos) Ancient: διάφορος (diáphoros) Hawaiian: likeʻole, like ʻole Hindi: विभिन्न (hi) (vibhinn) Hungarian: különböző (hu), különféle (hu), sokféle (hu) Ido: diversa (io) Irish: ilghnéitheach, ilchineálach, éagsúil Italian: vario (it) Japanese: いろいろな (ja) (iroiro na), 様々な (ja) (さまざまな, samazama na) Kannada: ಬೇರೆಬೇರೆ (bērebēre), ವಿವಿಧ (kn) (vividha) Khmer: ផ្សេងៗ (phseeng phseeng), ពិពិធ (km) (pipɨt) Korean: 여러 가지의 (yeoreo gaji-ui), 다양하다 (ko) (dayanghada), 여러 (ko) (yeoreo) Lao: ຕ່າງໆ (tāng tāng), ນານາ (nā nā) Latin: varius m Latvian: dažādi Lithuanian: įvairus, skirtingas Macedonian: различен (različen), разновиден (raznoviden), разен (razen) Malayalam: വിവിധ (ml) (vividha), പല (ml) (pala) Maori: kanorau, whakaehu Marathi: विविध (vividh), वेगवेगळे (vegvegḷe), विभिन्न (vibhinna), निरनिराळे (nirnirāḷe) Mongolian: Cyrillic: олон төрлийн (olon törliin) Norwegian: Bokmål: ymse, ulike (no) Old Church Slavonic: Cyrillic: разьнъ (razĭnŭ) Old East Slavic: розьнъ (rozĭnŭ) Old English: manigfeald Persian: Iranian Persian: مُخْتَلِف (moxtalef) Polish: różny (pl), rozmaity (pl) Portuguese: vários (pt) Romanian: divers (ro), variat (ro), diferit (ro), felurit (ro) Russian: ра́зный (ru) (ráznyj), разли́чный (ru) (razlíčnyj) Sanskrit: विभिन्न (sa) (vibhinna) Scottish Gaelic: eadar-dhealaichte Serbo-Croatian: Cyrillic: ра̑знӣ Roman: rȃznī (sh), raznoliki (sh) Slovak: rozličný, rôzny, rozmanitý Slovene: različen Sorbian: Lower Sorbian: wšaki Spanish: varios (es) Swedish: olika (sv) Tajik: мухталиф (tg) (muxtalif) Telugu: వేర్వేరు (vērvēru) Thai: ทั้งหลาย (th) (táng-lǎai), ต่าง (th) (dtàang), ต่าง ๆ (th) (dtàang-dtàang), นานา (th) (naa-naa), หลากหลาย (th) (làak-lǎai) Tibetan: སྣ་མིན་སྣ་ཚོགས (sna min sna tshogs) Turkish: çeşitli (tr) Ukrainian: рі́зний (ríznyj), різномані́тний (riznomanítnyj) Urdu: مُخْتَلِف (muxtalif) Uzbek: turli (uz) Vietnamese: khác nhau (vi)

Further reading

• “various”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “various”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Saviour, saviour