multifarious

English

Etymology

From Latin multifārius.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌmʌl.tɪˈfɛə.ɹi.əs/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌmʌl.tɪˈfɛɚ.i.əs/
• Rhymes: -ɛəɹiəs

Adjective

multifarious (comparative more multifarious, superlative most multifarious)

1. Having great diversity or variety; of various kinds; made up of many differing parts.

   Synonyms: diverse, manifold, various; see also Thesaurus:heterogeneous

   • 1878, Henry James, An International Episode‎^[1]:

     Nothing could well resemble less a typical English street than […] the multifarious awnings, banners, and streamers, the extraordinary number of omnibuses, horsecars, and other democratic vehicles, […]

   • 1943 January and February, “Charles S. Lake”, in Railway Magazine, page 1:

     Now, it is our regretful task to record his death on November 19 after a brief illness, and to include in a short article on page 29 some notes on his multifarious activities.

   • 2005, Plato, translated by Lesley Brown, Sophist, page 225c:

     It is divided into parts that are too small and multifarious.

2. (law, of lawsuits) In which a party or a cause of action has been improperly or wrongfully joined together in the same suit, as in a misjoinder, perhaps as a result of a joinder of unrelated, distinct, independent parties or matters.

Derived terms

• multifariously

Translations

having multiplicity

• Bulgarian: разнообразен (bg) (raznoobrazen)
• Czech: rozmanitý (cs)
• Dutch: veelvoudig (nl), divers (nl)
• Irish: ilghnéitheach, ilchineálach
• Russian: разнообра́зный (ru) (raznoobráznyj)
• Spanish: múltiple (es), diverso (es), variado (es)