different between blend vs variety

English

Etymology

From Middle English blenden, either from Old English blandan, blondan, ?eblandan, ?eblendan or from Old Norse blanda (“to blend, mix”) (which was originally a strong verb with the present-tense stem blend; compare blendingr (“a blending, a mixture; a half-breed”)), whence also Danish blande, or from a blend of the Old English and Old Norse terms; both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *blandan? (“to blend; mix; combine”). Compare Middle Dutch blanden (“to mix”), Gothic ???????????????????????????? (blandan), Old Church Slavonic ?????? (blesti, “to go astray”).

Pronunciation

• enPR: bl?nd, IPA^(key): /bl?nd/
• Rhymes: -?nd
• Homophone: blende

Noun

blend (plural blends)

1. A mixture of two or more things.

   Their music has been described as a blend of jazz and heavy metal.

   Our department has a good blend of experienced workers and young promise.

2. (linguistics) A word formed by combining two other words; a grammatical contamination, portmanteau word.

   The word brunch is a blend of the words breakfast and lunch.

Synonyms

• (mixture): combination, mix, mixture
• (in linguistics): frankenword, portmanteau, portmanteau word

Translations

Verb

blend (third-person singular simple present blends, present participle blending, simple past and past participle blended or (poetic) blent)

1. (transitive) To mingle; to mix; to unite intimately; to pass or shade insensibly into each other.

2. (intransitive) To be mingled or mixed.

   • There is a tone of solemn and sacred feeling that blends with our conviviality.

   • 1817, John Keats, Happy is England!

     To feel no other breezes than are blown / Through its tall woods with high romances blent
3. (obsolete) To pollute by mixture or association; to spoil or corrupt; to blot; to stain.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Spenser to this entry?)

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:blend.

Synonyms

• (to mix; to unite intimately): See also Thesaurus:homogenize, Thesaurus:mix, and Thesaurus:coalesce

Derived terms

• blender
• blended
• blend in
• blendingly

Translations

References

Anagrams

• L-bend

Central Franconian

Alternative forms

• blenk (Ripuarian; now chiefly western dialects)
• blond, blönd (Eifel)

Etymology

From Old High German blind, northern variant of blint.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /blent/

Adjective

blend (masculine blenne or blende, feminine blenn or blend, comparative blenner or blender, superlative et blendste)

1. (Moselle Franconian, some dialects of Ripuarian) blind; unable to see

Usage notes

• The inflected forms with -nn- are used in those dialects in which blend is the inherited form (Moselle Franconian, southern Ripuarian). The forms with -nd- are used in Ripuarian to the extent to which inherited blenk has been replaced with blend.

Dutch

Verb

blend

1. first-person singular present indicative of blenden
2. imperative of blenden

English

Alternative forms

• variëty (rare)

Etymology

From Middle French varieté, from Latin variet?s (“difference, diversity”), from varius (“different, various”); see various. Displaced native Old English misl?cnes.

Pronunciation

• enPR: v?-r???-t?, IPA^(key): /v???a?.?.ti/
• Rhymes: -a??ti
• Hyphenation: va?ri?e?ty

Noun

variety (countable and uncountable, plural varieties)

1. The quality of being varied; diversity.

   Antonym: sameness

2. A specific variation of something.
3. A number of different things.

   Synonyms: array, assortment

4. A state of constant change.
5. (taxonomy) A rank in a taxonomic classification, below species (infraspecific), either below subspecies (subspecific) or ranked comparably therewith.
6. (cybernetics) The total number of distinct states of a system.
7. (cybernetics) Logarithm of the base 2 of the total number of distinct states of a system.
8. (linguistics) A term used for a specific form of a language, neutral to whether that form is a dialect, accent, register, etc. and to its prestige level.
9. (algebra, universal algebra) An equational class; the class of all algebraic structures of a given signature, satisfying a given set of identities.
10. (algebraic geometry) An algebraic variety.
11. The kind of theatrical entertainment given in variety shows.
12. The production of, or performance in, variety shows.

Synonyms

• (quality of being varied): See also Thesaurus:nonuniformity
• (algebraic geometry): algebraic variety
• (universal algebra): equational class, equational variety, variety of algebras

Hyponyms

• (specific variation of something): cultivar

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

See also

• species
• (cybernetics: logarithm): information entropy

Further reading

• variety in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• variety in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.