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Definition
to be different, or to change- Your mileage may vary.
vary = be different
- McDonald's menu options vary by location.
- Vary the amount of sugar to suit your taste.
- According to the graph, is the percentage of the compound is each organism's DNA the same or does it vary?
- O, swear not by the moon, the inconstant moon,
That monthly changes in her circled orb,
Lest that thy love prove likewise variable.William Shakespeare -- Romeo and Juliet - We had to list the highest grade level we'd completed, which could vary immensely, since only Sixes and Sevens went to the public schools and had actual grade levels.Kiera Cass -- The Selection
- We have almost grown accustomed to it; war is a cause of death like cancer and tuberculosis, like influenza and dysentery. The deaths are merely more frequent, more varied and terrible.Erich Maria Remarque -- All Quiet on the Western Front
- I jerked awake and made an honest effort to remain so, by looking down and concentrating on the heads below: there were sixteen bald ones, fourteen men that could pass for redheads, forty heads varying between brown and black,Harper Lee -- To Kill a Mockingbird
- But, as respects the majority of my corps of veterans, there will be no wrong done if I characterize them generally as a set of wearisome old souls, who had gathered nothing worth preservation from their varied experience of life.Nathaniel Hawthorne -- The Scarlet Letter
- Stating his name as Mr. Larry Price—a man with curly white hair, cut short, and dressed in a blue suit that shone cheaply—and that he drove the Trailways bus on varying routes in this area of North Carolina, the next witness was sworn in.Delia Owens -- Where the Crawdads Sing
- There were, I considered, amongst my guests, varying degrees of guilt.Agatha Christie -- And Then There Were None
- Calpurnia poured milk, dished out potato salad and ham, muttering, " 'shamed of yourselves," in varying degrees of intensity.Harper Lee -- To Kill a Mockingbird
- It's easy to allocate resources when everyone gets the same thing, but everything is more varied at the Dauntless compound.Veronica Roth -- Divergent
- This was one of those areas where it always seemed that what people knew was varied, both as far as what was fact and just how informed they were.Kiera Cass -- The Selection
- If you weren't a Two or Three, it was just varying shades of bad.Kiera Cass -- The Selection
- It was in sufficient proximity to bring the whole sermon to her ears, in the shape of an indistinct but varied murmur and flow of the minister's very peculiar voice.Nathaniel Hawthorne -- The Scarlet Letter
- On this eventful day, moreover, there was a certain singular inquietude and excitement in her mood, resembling nothing so much as the shimmer of a diamond, that sparkles and flashes with the varied throbbings of the breast on which it is displayed.Nathaniel Hawthorne -- The Scarlet Letter
- It is that of the Collector, our gallant old General, who, after his brilliant military service, subsequently to which he had ruled over a wild Western territory, had come hither, twenty years before, to spend the decline of his varied and honourable life.Nathaniel Hawthorne -- The Scarlet Letter
- The Dauntless cheer at varying pitches, high and low, bright and deep.Veronica Roth -- Divergent
- Four continues, "The number of fears you have in your landscape varies according to how many you have."Veronica Roth -- Divergent
vary = are different
vary = change
vary = differ
variable = changing
(Editor's note: The suffix "-able" in variable means able to be. This is the same pattern you see in words like breakable, understandable, and comfortable. Note that when "-able" is placed at the end of a word that ends in "Y", the "Y" is often replaced with "I" as in enviable and deniable.)
vary = differ (be different)
varied = differing (from a variety of causes)
varying = differing
varied = differing
varying = different
varying = differing
varying = differing
varied = different (not all the same)
varied = differed (was different)
varying = differing
varied = differing
varied = differing
varied = differing
Dictionary / pronunciation — Google®Dictionary / more samples — Oxford® USDictionary list — Onelook.com®