various

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

• (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

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.

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^[1], 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

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

• monotonous

• “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.

• Saviour, saviour