■ adjective different from one another; of different kinds or sorts.
↘having or showing different properties or qualities.
■ determiner & pronoun more than one; individual and separate: ~ people arrived late.
Derivatives
~ly adverb
~ness noun
Origin
ME: from L. varius 'changing, diverse' + -ous .
Usage
The use of ~ as a pronoun followed by of ( ~ of her friends had called ) is sometimes regarded as incorrect, although words such as several and many are used in a similar way ( several of her friends had called ) without comment.