Word.ws English Dictionary

countervairy

countervairy adjective: divided into a countervair pattern of two or more tinctures.

Adjective

countervairy (not comparable)

  1. (rare) Divided into a countervair pattern of two or more tinctures.
    • Bufkin. Arms.—Or, a chevron between three close helmets azure. [...] A shield [blank] impaling: Quarterly: 1, Per fess azure [and argent], a pale countercharged between three bucks' heads, two and one, erased [or]; [...] 3, Ermine, a fess counter vairy or and gules; [...] Another shield [blank]...1924, Thomas Benolt, The Visitations of Kent ..., page 86
    • In the border of a miniature, the arms of the first owner, apparently a member of the Van Varssenaere family of Bruges (1, sable three daggers proper in bend; 2, sable three sheaves of wheat or; 3, argent vairy countervairy gules; 4, azure six ears of wheat or, 3, 2, 1).1961, Seymour de Ricci, William Jerome Wilson, Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, page 1816

Forms of countervairy

alternative formcounter-vairy
alternative formcounter vairy

Origin of countervairy

From counter- + vairy.

Questions about countervairy

What does countervairy mean?
Countervairy means divided into a countervair pattern of two or more tinctures.
What part of speech is countervairy?
Countervairy is an adjective.

Words near countervairy in the dictionary

  1. countervailing duties
  2. countervailing duty
  3. countervailingly
  4. countervails
  5. countervair
  6. countervairy
  7. countervallation
  8. countervallations
  9. countervalue
  10. countervalued
  11. countervalues

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: countervairy (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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