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multifarious

UK/ˌmʌltɪˈfɛəɹi.əs/US/ˌmʌltɪˈfɛəɹi.əs/
adjectiveC2Very rare — outside the 30,000 commonest English words, so you will meet it in writing rather than in speechleans writtenformal · an editor’s judgement

Multifarious means of many different sorts all at once. Not just many — many kinds.

That distinction is the whole point of the word, since numerous means a lot and multifarious means varied. It attaches to duties, activities and interests, and somebody's multifarious commitments is a formal way of saying they are involved in far too many things. The word is formal and slightly showy. Diverse and varied do the same job with less effort from the reader.

Definitions of multifarious

  1. 1adjectivemultifariousOf many different kinds.C2

    “His multifarious duties left no time for anything else.”

Also accepted in games: varied, diverse

Where it comes from

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *dʰeh₁-

  2. Latin

    multifārius

  3. English, today

    multifarious

From Latin multifārius.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove

First appears in chapter 37 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

multifarious in the wild

  • The league table was originally compiled and issued by Shanghai Jiao Tong University in 2003, making it the first global university ranking with multifarious indicators.

    Academic Ranking of World Universities

  • Sargis Mubayeajian, better known by his pen name Atrpet, was a prolific and multifarious Armenian writer.

    Atrpet

  • Arias, also known as Chencho, is a multifarious Spanish diplomat, who served as consul general in Los Angeles, California, United States.

    Inocencio Arias

  • The Cathedral Parish also has its own multifarious institutes and associations.

    St. Thomas Cathedral, Irinjalakuda

  • Racism in the Philippines is multifarious and emerged in various portions of the history of people, institutions and territories coinciding to that of the present-day Philippines.

    Racism in the Philippines

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.