How to spell variety

hear itva·ri·e·ty/və'raɪɪti/nounLong vowels

What it means: A collection containing different sorts of things.

In a sentence: There is a variety of colorful flowers in the garden.

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear, and the order of ie. Often misspelled as varity or veriety.

Same family: various, variation, varying, varied, variedness. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Variety” comes from Latin *varietas*, from *varius* meaning “different” or “changing.” It’s related to the word “vary,” and the old saying “variety is the spice of life” has been popular in English since at least the 18th century.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

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Words like this

phenomenon · knowledge · phobia · additional · never · little · answer · done

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