Intermixture of different things, or of things different in form; or a succession of different things. Variety is nothing else but a continued novelty. The variety of colors depends on the composition of light.

One thing of many which constitute variety. In this sense, it has a plural; as the varieties of a species.

Difference; dissimilitude. There is a variety in the tempers of good men.

Variation; deviation; change from a former state.

Many and different kinds. The shopkeeper has a great variety of cottons and silks. He wants to do a variety of good things.

In natural history, a difference not permanent or invariable, but occasioned by an accidental change; as a variety of any species of plant. Naturalists formerly erred very much in supposing an accidental variety of plants, animals or minerals, to be a distinct species. Ray has established a good test for varieties in botany. A plant is distinct, which propagates itself in its own form by its seed; but when the difference disappears in the new plant, it is only a variety. Variety then is a difference between individuals, not permanent nor important enough to constitute a distinct species; such as in size, color, fullness, curling.

Different sort; as varieties of soil or land.