Emily Dickinson Lexicon

VA-RI'E-TY, n. [Fr. varieté; L. varietas, from vario, to vary.]

1. Intermixture of different things, or of things different in form; or a succession of different things. Variety is nothing else but a continued novelty. – South. The variety of colors depends on the composition of light. – Newton.
2. One thing of many which constitute variety. In this sense, it has a plural; as, the varieties of a species.
3. Difference; dissimilitude. There is a variety in the tempers of good men. – Atterbury.
4. Variation; deviation; change from a former state. – Hale.
5. Many and different kinds. The shopkeeper has a great variety of cottons and silks. He wants to do a variety of good things. – Law.
6. 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; such as in size, fullness, curling, &c.
7. Different sort; as, varieties of soil or land.