Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
to variegate

to variegate

1 8.8
To make something more varied by adding different colours or marks
  • verb
  • /ˈvɛrɪɡeɪt/
translation icon : variegado
  • "Osbert Lancaster coined the phrase "bypass variegated" to describe the architectural style of the elaborately differentiated small houses leading to it.

Examples

  • Originated in England, this cultivar is more vigorous than the silver variegated form (S. uplandicum 'Variegatum'), producing huge, narrow green leaves with large margins of brilliant gold.

    Blog text (6)

  • Dusky variegated leaves hunkered against a stem that wound in a stranglehold around the smooth trunk of a balsam fir.

    Fiction book (1995)

  • However, like many emotional states, boredom is variegated.

    Blog text (29)

  • For the world's first industrial nation and the greatest, most far-flung, and most variegated.

    Academic text (1996)

  • The timber was stripped of its bark, variegated, tarred, and then stuck into the ground.

    Academic text (2006)

  • Like the patrol officers who came before them, the missionaries arrived holding what appeared to Asabano to be bundles of bound leaves, variegated in black and white.

    Academic text (2001)

  • The average intelligence of individuals with the above-mentioned deviation, especially if measured via commonly used tests, is somewhat lower than that of normal people, albeit similarly variegated.

    Blog text (2)

  • We've seen frames that were flat, white, pale pink, green, jonquil yellow, and others variegated to the extreme with a thousand tones and in a thousand manners.

    Academic text (1991)

  • Here, Brand laces together organic and electric, heavy and light, tribal and modern, crafting pieces that variegate from his familiar ambient stylings to pieces that are complex and comparatively challenging.

    Blog text (10)

  • The gardener decided to variegate the flowerbeds by planting a mix of bright and dark-colored blooms.

Synonyms

to vary
vsto variegate
95 2.6

Make something a little different

focuses specifically on adding colors or features rather than general change
to diversify
vsto variegate
63 5.3

To add different kinds of products or activities to reduce risk

is used more for appearance or variety, not mainly to reduce risk
to motley
vsto variegate
  • Archaic
8.4

To make something have many different colors

is broader, used for adding color or other features to increase variety
to parti-color
vsto variegate
  • Archaic
9.6

To decorate something with patches of different colors

is mainly about color patterns rather than adding other kinds of features
to polychrome
vsto variegate
8.3

To add many colors to something

is less specific, allowing other features beyond just color
to polychromize
vsto variegate
  • Specialized
9.9

To paint something in many different colors

is less specific, allowing other features beyond just color

How Varied

to variegate
1 8.8
to embellish
19 6.1
to streak
22 2.8
to tint
24 3.6

Surface Forms

variegate infinitive
variegated past
variegated past participle
variegating present participle
variegates third person singular

Morphology

variegate = vary (semi-transparent) = varieg + ate

The verb's meaning corresponds to 'vary' plus the productive verb-forming suffix '-ate', but the uncommon form and spelling ('varieg-') and the word's rarity make the relation less immediately obvious to many learners.

Etymology

Variegate comes from the root vari-, which means 'different' and is the same root we see in various and variety. So to variegate something is to make it 'varied' by adding different colors or parts, which explains its modern meaning.