vagary
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of vagary
1565–75, in sense “wandering journey”; apparently < Latin vagārī to wander
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.
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
Insider trading is really not well defined so that it can escape the vagary between the well informed participant and the person who is actually using knowledge that is withheld deliberately to mislead traders.
From New York Times • May 23, 2016
Normally, this would result in a total solar eclipse, but for a vagary of orbital mechanics: It happened when the Moon was near apogee, the point in its orbit when it’s farthest from Earth.
From Slate • Dec. 23, 2013
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
Definitions 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.
