VARIER
Va"ri*er, n. Etym: [From Vary.]
Defn: A wanderer; one who strays in search of variety. [Poetic]
Pious variers from the church. Tennyson.
VARIETAL
Va*ri"e*tal, a.
Defn: Of or pertaining to a variety; characterizing a variety; constituting a variety, in distinction from an individual or species. Perplexed in determining what differences to consider as specific, and what as varietal. Darwin.
VARIETAS
Va*ri"e*tas, n. Etym: [L.]
Defn: A variety; — used in giving scientific names, and often abbreviated to var.
VARIETY
Va*ri"e*ty, n.; pl. Varieties. Etym: [L. varietas: cf. F. 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 this variety from heaven. Milton. There is a variety in the tempers of good men. Atterbury.
2. That which is various. Specifically: — (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) (Biol.) 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.