different between clutter vs variety

English

Etymology

From Middle English cloteren (“to form clots; coagulate; heap on”), from clot (“clot”), equivalent to clot +? -er (frequentative suffix). Compare Welsh cludair (“heap, pile”), cludeirio (“to heap”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?kl?t?(?)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?kl?t?/, [?kl???]
• Rhymes: -?t?(r)

Noun

clutter (countable and uncountable, plural clutters)

1. (uncountable) A confused disordered jumble of things.
2. (uncountable) Background echoes, from clouds etc., on a radar or sonar screen.
3. (countable) A group of cats; the collective noun for cats.
   • 2008, John Robert Colombo, The Big Book of Canadian Ghost Stories, Introduction

     Organizing ghost stories is like herding a clutter of cats: the phenomenon resists organization and classification.

4. (obsolete) Clatter; confused noise.
   • October 14 1718, John Arbuthnot, letter to Jonathan Swift

     I hardly heard a word of news or politicks, except a little clutter about sending some impertinent presidents du parliament to prison

   • 1835, William Cobbett, John Morgan Cobbett, James Paul Cobbett, Selections from Cobbett's political works (volume 1, page 33)

     It was then you might have heard a clutter: pots, pans and pitchers, mugs, jugs and jordens, all put themselves in motion at once […]

Derived terms

• surface clutter
• volume clutter

Translations

Verb

clutter (third-person singular simple present clutters, present participle cluttering, simple past and past participle cluttered)

1. To fill something with clutter.
2. (obsolete, intransitive) To clot or coagulate, like blood.

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

3. To make a confused noise; to bustle.
   • ?, Alfred Tennyson, The Goose

     It [the goose] cluttered here, it chuckled there.

4. To utter words hurriedly, especially (but not exclusively) as a speech disorder (compare cluttering).

Translations

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.