diversity
- the state or fact of being diverse; difference; unlikeness: diversity of opinion.
- variety; multiformity.
- the inclusion of individuals representing more than one national origin, color, religion, socioeconomic stratum, sexual orientation, etc.: diversity in the workplace.
- a point of difference.
Origin of diversity
Synonyms
See more synonyms for diversity on Thesaurus.comExamples from the Web for diversity
Contemporary Examples
That would truly be a milestone to celebrate—until you see what that record “diversity” actually means.
Parker tells of a new Texas struggling to deal with diversity.
We know there needs to be diversity in storytellers telling their own stories.
Ava DuVernay on ‘Selma,’ the Racist Sony Emails, and Making Golden Globes HistoryMarlow Stern
December 15, 2014
The speakers emphasized the diversity of the crowd and seemed to almost play defense over any perceived media attacks.
Sharpton Recalls Civil Rights Struggle in DC March Against Police ViolenceBen Jacobs
December 13, 2014
Without any diversity of opinion, candidates tend to bunch together as much as possible.
Historical Examples
There was, he contended, some diversion and diversity in card-playing.
De Libris: Prose and VerseAustin Dobson
In such a diversity it was impossible I should be disposed to melancholy.
The Adventures of Colonel Daniel BooneJohn Filson
Diversity is the law of life, as equality, or versimilitude, is that of death.
Life: Its True GenesisR. W. Wright
The ensuing survey does not pretend to cover the field in all its diversity.
The Fabric of CivilizationAnonymous
The diversity of the sutures was caused by the struggle of the food against the courses of the soul.
TimaeusPlato
diversity
- the state or quality of being different or varied
- a point of difference
- logic the relation that holds between two entities when and only when they are not identical; the property of being numerically distinct
Word Origin and History for diversity
n.
mid-14c., "quality of being diverse," mostly in a neutral sense, from Old French diversité (12c.) "difference, diversity, unique feature, oddness:" also "wickedness, perversity," from Latin diversitatem (nominative diversitas) "contrariety, contradiction, disagreement;" also, as a secondary sense, "difference, diversity," from diversus "turned different ways" (in Late Latin "various"), past participle of divertere (see divert).
Negative meaning, "being contrary to what is agreeable or right; perversity, evil" existed in English from late 15c. but was obsolete from 17c. Diversity as a virtue in a nation is an idea from the rise of modern democracies in the 1790s, where it kept one faction from arrogating all power (but this was not quite the modern sense, as ethnicity, gender, sexual identity, etc. were not the qualities in mind):
The dissimilarity in the ingredients which will compose the national government, and still more in the manner in which they will be brought into action in its various branches, must form a powerful obstacle to a concert of views in any partial scheme of elections. There is sufficient diversity in the state of property, in the genius, manners, and habits of the people of the different parts of the Union, to occasion a material diversity of disposition in their representatives towards the different ranks and conditions in society. ["Federalist" #60, Feb. 26, 1788 (Hamilton)]
Specific focus (in a positive sense) on race, gender, etc. is from 1992.