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• garden-variety
  garden-variety

  adjective

  common, usual, or ordinary; unexceptional.
• garden variety
  garden variety

  Ordinary, common, as in I don't want anything special in a VCR—the garden variety will do. This term alludes to a common plant as opposed to a specially bred hybrid. [Colloquial; 1920]

garden-variety

American  

[gahr-dn-vuh-rahy-i-tee] / ˈgɑr dn vəˌraɪ ɪ ti /

adjective

1. common, usual, or ordinary; unexceptional.

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garden variety Idioms  

1. Ordinary, common, as in I don't want anything special in a VCR—the garden variety will do. This term alludes to a common plant as opposed to a specially bred hybrid. [Colloquial; 1920]

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Etymology

Origin of garden-variety

First recorded in 1925–30

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

garden-variety garden variety

Jerry Heasley, a Texas car collector and freelance automotive journalist, convinced Tesla in 2025 to refund the $50,000 deposit he had made in 2017 for a garden-variety Roadster, according to documents viewed by the Journal.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 7, 2026

“A garden-variety bear market is increasingly becoming my base case — or it’s getting close to it,” Wallerstein told the Other People’s Money podcast on Wednesday about his recently published outlook.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 24, 2026

“For now this is a garden-variety sell-off,” he said.

From Barron's ● Mar. 9, 2026

This week’s Slate News Quiz is more than your garden-variety diversion.

From Slate ● Oct. 3, 2025

As he approached the fiery grey apparition, he was fairly sure it was a garden-variety wraith - a lost soul who had died in pain.

From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan

“If this goes lower, will this feel like a garden variety pullback? Heck no, not with these headlines,” he said.

From Barron's ● Mar. 30, 2026

This is not another garden variety Latin genre list, but a highlight reel of 2025 releases that showcases artists from Latin America and the diaspora.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 18, 2025

They didn’t really view the battle flag “as insurrectionist or pro-slavery, but more as garden variety rebellion,” he said.

From Seattle Times ● Mar. 8, 2023

This is not just garden variety lying, but being so adamant about an obviously untrue thing that your interlocutor gives up fighting for the truth out of sheer exhaustion.

From Salon ● May 26, 2022

I had a common or garden variety of lung trouble.

From Unicorns by James Huneker

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