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vicissitude

American  
[vi-sis-i-tood, -tyood] / vɪˈsɪs ɪˌtud, -ˌtyud /

noun

  1. a change or variation occurring in the course of something.

  2. interchange or alternation, as of states or things.

  3. vicissitudes, successive, alternating, or changing phases or conditions, as of life or fortune; ups and downs.

    They remained friends through the vicissitudes of 40 years.

  4. regular change or succession of one state or thing to another.

  5. change; mutation; mutability.

vicissitude British  
/ vɪˈsɪsɪˌtjuːd /

noun

  1. variation or mutability in nature or life, esp successive alternation from one condition or thing to another

  2. a variation in circumstance, fortune, character, etc

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Other Word Forms

  • vicissitudinary adjective
  • vicissitudinous adjective

Etymology

Origin of vicissitude

First recorded in 1560–70; from Middle French, from Latin vicissitūdō, equivalent to viciss(im) “in turn” (perhaps by syncope, from unrecorded vice-cessim; vice “in the place of” + cessim “giving way,“ adverbial derivative of cēdere “to go, proceed”) + -i- -i- + -tūdō -tude; vice 3

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.

His tone is nothing if not complicit: “I was named Olaudah, which, in our language signifies vicissitude or fortune; also one favoured, and having a loud voice and well-spoken.”

From The Guardian • Aug. 7, 2017

I was named Olaudah, which, in our language, signifies vicissitude or fortune also, one favoured, and having a loud voice and well spoken.

From Slate • Jun. 3, 2015

It calls for poise, concentration, vitality and, above all, for a kind of instinctive communion with the camera that comes partly from inner fiber, partly from vicissitude and long practice.

From Time Magazine Archive

The condition of life is the liability to vicissitude, and, while it is human to feel, it is duty to endure.

From English Secularism A Confession Of Belief by Holyoake, George Jacob

Voyager, tossed on the waves of sin and sorrow, driven hither and thither on the world's heaving ocean of vicissitude, hear it!

From Thoughts for the Quiet Hour by Various

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.