Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. An extravagant or erratic notion or action.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To gad; range.
- n. A wandering or strolling.
- n. A wandering of the thoughts; a wild freak; a whim; a whimsical purpose.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. obsolete A wandering or strolling.
- n. Hence, a wandering of the thoughts; a wild or fanciful freak; a whim; a whimsical purpose.
WordNet 3.0
- n. an unexpected and inexplicable change in something (in a situation or a person's behavior, etc.)
Etymologies
- From Latin vagus ("wandering"). (Wiktionary)
- From Latin vagārī, to wander, from vagus, wandering. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“He can call them “simple” tests, but this kind of vagary is far from simple to implement into a budget.”
Michael Ignatieff Takes That Paintbrush Into The Corner « Unambiguously Ambidextrous
“For there is no such thing as a naturally occurring "vagary" that we cannot tackle effectively with the fund of techniques to which all societies and all generations have contributed.”
“Nobody seems interested in destroying, once and for all, the vicious circle in which this "vagary" of international fraud entraps us.”
“Given the perpetual fear/reward roller coaster of his world, Cheswick has committed his real but misguided passion to a fight which, by virtue of its vagary and volatility, can only end in his defeat.”
The Huffington Post: Steven Weber: Tea Party in a Cuckoo's Nest
“His surname changes to Peyten and then Peyton, which is the vagary of the census-taker, not John.”
“And then came the day when my socialism grew respectable, -- still a vagary of youth, it was held, but romantically respectable.”
“In the bourgeois mind socialism has changed from a terrible disease to a youthful vagary, and later on had its thunder stolen by the two old parties, -- socialism, like a meek and thrifty workingman, being exploited became respectable.”
“I cannot tell you how full of vagary the correspondence we have fallen into seems to me.”
“Now, maybe we'll get some more background on Holly in future issues, but for a first issue, that sort of vagary sticks out.”
“Putting a stop to such vagary is what the new definitions are all about.”
The Wall Street Journal: The Fate of the Kilo Weighs Heavily on the Minds of Metrologists
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘vagary’.
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words 1
Traduce, Ramify, precipitous, rapture, adumbrate, knell, smolder, vagary, choleric, sibylline, hypocritical, jejune and 135 more...
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January 2012
bloviate, pastiche, apparat, facile, paroxysm, pique, bedfellow, pedigree, tutelage, protege, protégé, retroactive and 196 more...
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October Words-11337
During the month of October, post at least 10 new words to this list. Make sure you cite where you read the word (book/author/pg) and quote the context/sentence where you found it. If someone has a...
amplification, till, osmosis, osmoregulation, pinocytosis, junction, transduction, paralysis, afflicted, isotonic, diverse, entrenched and 48 more...
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Random Words! Add Your Own! :D
Randomness time! Add your own words. ❤
Love, bucket, brigade, actuary, canal, canasta, why is the door open, coconut, stochastic, haphazard, accidental, chance and 38 more...
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GRE
GRE words from Princeton Review guide, ETS GRE Book from 2010 (for revised test), New Yorker/NY Times articles.
sycophant, obsequious, volubility, equanimity, enervate, effrontery, impertinent, platitude, impudence, quiescent, propitiate, equivocate and 124 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1901 more...
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ash vocab
flippant, fillip, expiate, explicate, extirpate, facile, florid, fealty, allegiance, fetid, febrile, pert and 134 more...
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Reading Vocab
bleak, batiste, maroon, impiety, aigrette, precious, warrant, ulterior, syllogism, vie, topsy-turvy ago, midnight crush and 180 more...
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apjoseph's words
insurmountable, ubiquitous, unequivocal, incumbent, asinine, amenable, sycophants, precarious, malevolent, gregarious, raison detra, nefarious and 200 more...
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Good Words
fenestering, cetic, immanent, quickening, archetypal, shibboleth, soma, wetware, heritable, Apotheosis, halcyon, cellar door and 482 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
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Ny New Words
From Barron Wordlist the New Words
lap, lank, languor, languish, lancet, lance, lampoon, larceny, larder, largess, lascivious, latitude and 120 more...
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Don't Be a LAZY LINGUIST!
Words that remind me to:
Stop speaking with laze.
Exercise my intellect more than my tongue.
Choose Better Company.
This is not the "Ooh, I love the way these words ...splore, inoculate, dysphemism, bruit, mellifluous, winsome, rancor, aplomb, equivocate, palpable, equivocate, licentious and 128 more...
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traipsin' 'long through dis 'ear book...
Words which are either entirely new to me or;
Words which I comprehend generally but would prefer a more precise definition.
venality, seigneurial, mendicant, perforce, manse, glebe, trenchant, saw, obstreperous, profligate, dissipation, galliard and 176 more...
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Misc. Words.
Words I like to use, words I like but may forget.
corrosion, astonish, solace, ferment, continuum, kinesthetic, permeate, repose, caprice, cardinal, discourse, surrender and 610 more...
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rhii's words to remember and incorporate
Just whatever words I might happen across in my wanderings that I find myself compelled to write down so that I remember to try to use them. Not necessarily unusual words, but worthwhile ones.
redact, treatise, vitrify, cogitate, propensity, silphium, saccharine, minutiae, sluicing, dalliance, remonstrated, carnelian and 131 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for vagary.
biocon Vagary (verb) means "to wander or roam" (Oxford English Dictionary). Jul 11, 2011
Alexis Perez Strange happening:Economists don't understand all the vagaries of the stock market. (newbury house dic.) Oct 30, 2010