Variety , noun
[Latin varietas: compare French variété. See Various.]
1.
The quality or state of being various; intermixture or succession of different things; diversity; multifariousness.
Variety is nothing else but a continued novelty. — South
The variety of colors depends upon the composition of light. — Sir I. Newton
For earth hath this variety from heaven. — Milton
There is a variety in the tempers of good men. — Atterbury
2.
That which is various.
(a)
A number or collection of different things; a varied assortment; as, a
variety of cottons and silks.
He... wants more time to do that variety of good which his soul thirsts after. — Law
(b)
Something varying or differing from others of the same general kind; one of a number of things that are akin; a sort; as, varieties of wood, land, rocks, etc.
(c)
(Biology) An individual, or group of individuals, of a species differing from the rest in some one or more of the characteristics typical of the species, and capable either of perpetuating itself for a period, or of being perpetuated by artificial means; hence, a subdivision, or peculiar form, of a species.
Varieties usually differ from species in that any two, however unlike, will generally propagate indefinitely (unless they are in their nature unfertile, as some varieties of rose and other cultivated plants); in being a result of climate, food, or other extrinsic conditions or influences, but generally by a sudden, rather than a gradual, development; and in tending in many cases to lose their distinctive peculiarities when the individuals are left to a state of nature, and especially if restored to the conditions that are natural to typical individuals of the species. Many varieties of domesticated animals and of cultivated plants have been directly produced by man.
(d)
In inorganic nature, one of those forms in which a species may occur, which differ in minor characteristics of structure, color, purity of composition, etc.
These may be viewed as variations from the typical species in its most perfect and purest form, or, as is more commonly the case, all the forms, including the latter, may rank as Varieties. Thus, the sapphire is a blue variety, and the ruby a red variety, of corundum; again, calcite has many Varieties differing in form and structure, as Iceland spar, dogtooth spar, satin spar, and also others characterized by the presence of small quantities of magnesia, iron, manganese, etc. Still again, there are varieties of granite differing in structure, as graphic granite, porphyritic granite, and other varieties differing in composition, as albitic granite, hornblendic, or syenitic, granite, etc.
3.
(Theaters) Such entertainment as in given in variety shows; the production of, or performance in, variety shows.
[Cant] All sorts are here that all the earth yields!
Variety without end. — Milton
But see in all corporeal nature's scene,
What changes, what diversities, have been! — Blackmore
Collocations (2)
Geographical variety (Biology) , a variety of any species which is coincident with a geographical region, and is usually dependent upon, or caused by, peculiarities of climate.
Variety hybrid (Biology) , a cross between two individuals of different varieties of the same species; a mongrel.