vagary
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of vagary
1565–75, in sense “wandering journey”; apparently < Latin vagārī to wander
Explanation
A vagary is an unexpected and unpredictable change, and the word is usually used in the plural. You might know from experience that the vagaries of winter weather make planning a vacation in February a risky proposition. Vagary traces back to the Latin root meaning "wander," and you can think of a vagary as something that wanders. Events or situations that seem to change at random have vagaries. Whether the hottest new boy band will succeed or not is dependent on the vagaries of teenage enthusiasms. The vagaries of the real estate market will determine whether that swamp property you just bought is a gold mine or a disaster.
Vocabulary lists containing vagary
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Christopher Columbus' Diary: The First Voyage
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A Separate Peace
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Still, the fact that the weird home exercise equipment corporation—er, sorry, media company—is one of the most potentially lucrative platforms for musicians is yet another bizarre vagary of the modern music industry.
From Slate ● Jul. 12, 2021
An interesting, sciencey explanation of the Y chromosome and sex distinction in all it’s vagary and confusion, and the strange trip through the behaviors of the life span of the males of many species.
From New York Times ● Dec. 19, 2019
It covers the whole wide world of early-19th-century trade, and it evinces a worldly acceptance of human disparity and vagary.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 16, 2018
If they mess up — or even if the issue is just a vagary of your own personal preferences — it’s only right to give them another chance.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 5, 2017
As Sullivan saw it, “Burnham came out of his somnambulistic vagary and joined in. He was keen enough to understand that ‘Uncle Dick’”—meaning Hunt—“had done him a needed favor.”
From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson
At the least, those responses seem more likely than if the boss were tossing around vagaries on a podcast.
From Slate ● Sep. 1, 2026
And if so, just who, on a day when the vagaries of links golf on the blustery Lancashire coast propelled several players into realistic contention and just as quickly swept their aspirations aside.
From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2026
“By the time the Scramble for Africa was over,” Martin Meredith tells us, the vagaries of geopolitical geometry had amalgamated “some 10,000 African polities . . . into forty European colonies and protectorates.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 17, 2026
The vagaries of the schedule are something that figures to hamper MLS teams all season.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 18, 2026
She considers the vagaries of sports, the happenstance of El Li'der, a star pitcher in his youth, narrowly missing a baseball career in America.
From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
