How to use vagary in a sentence

13 example sentences · noun

Vagary means an erratic, unpredictable occurrence or action. Example: “This searching was facilitated by the author's knowledge of the vagaries of Anglo-Indian spelling and the numerous colonial-era transliteration systems used for loanwords from Indian languages.”

Examples of vagary by meaning

nounAn erratic, unpredictable occurrence or action.

This searching was facilitated by the author's knowledge of the vagaries of Anglo-Indian spelling and the numerous colonial-era transliteration systems used for loanwords from Indian languages.2018, James Lambert, “Anglo-Indian slang in dictionaries on historical principles”, in World Englishes, volume 37, page 251
These systems learn the vagaries of language by analyzing enormous amounts of text, including thousands of books, Wikipedia entries and other online documents.2020 December 3, Cade Metz, Daisuke Wakabayashi, “Google Researcher Says She Was Fired Over Paper Highlighting Bias in A.I.”, in The New...

nounSomething vague.

to speak in vagaries

nounAn impulsive or illogical desire; a caprice or whim.

And then came the day when my socialism grew respectable,—still a vagary of youth, it was held, but romantically respectable.1905, Jack London, War of the Classes, Preface

More sentences with vagary

Even these vagaries may not have penetrated the juratorial perception, had not Bertram skidded a little into blasphemy.1929, Edward Huntington Williams, “Mental Quirks of Juries on Medical Subjects”, in The Doctor in Court, Baltimore: The Williams & Wilkins…. From the entry juratorial
Systems must be constantly poised for change: a potential for evolvability is essential if they are to respond to the vagaries of an uncertain future.2003, Adrian Woolfson, ‘Genetic Mountaineering’, London Review of Books, volume 25, number 3. From the entry evolvability
Nearly a dozen such enterprises now struggle each summer against the vagaries of rough weather and mosquito swarms to bring the Bard to the nation.2002, Diana Brydon, Irene Rima Makaryk, Shakespeare in Canada: A World Elsewhere, University of Toronto Press, →ISBN, page 108. From the entry bard
She was the sister who had remained within the pale; I, the rapscallion of a brother whose vagaries were trying to his relations.1901, Joseph Conrad, Ford M. Hueffer [i.e., Ford Madox Ford], chapter 3, in The Inheritors: An Extravagant Story, London: William…. From the entry rapscallion
In a bid to escape the vagaries of consumer electronics, Samsung may be ploughing headlong into the areas most ripe for invasion by a new breed of emerging-market titans.2011, The Economist, Samsung: The next big bet. From the entry plough into
The vagaries of the records bar any firm calculation of membership figures – especially as receipts include money for 'soulscot', presumably made on behalf of the dead.2007, R. N. Swanson, Indulgences in Late Medieval England. From the entry soulscot
After the tour I lingered on, and Jim and I talked a bit there by the waterway about the vagaries of being a shellfisher in the modern age.2007, Bland Simpson, The Inner Islands: A Carolinian's Sound Country Chronicle, →ISBN. From the entry shellfisher
Meanwhile, cryptic comments abound in the investigators' report, such as, “It is beyond the purview of this report to inquire into the vagaries of airline fares.”2005, Pedro Sanjuan, The UN Gang. From the entry oversighter
White's discussion of the rift between environmentalists and those who "work for a living" points up the vagaries of educating for work under the present technoliterate dispensation.1998, Randall Roorda, Dramas of Solitude, page 217. From the entry technoliterate

Meaning of vagary

noun An erratic, unpredictable occurrence or action.
noun Something vague.
noun An impulsive or illogical desire; a caprice or whim.

Full definition of vagary

Questions about vagary in a sentence

How do you use vagary in a sentence?: Vagary is used as a noun. For example: “This searching was facilitated by the author's knowledge of the vagaries of Anglo-Indian spelling and the numerous colonial-era transliteration systems used for loanwords from Indian languages.”
What is a short sentence with vagary?: “to speak in vagaries”
What does vagary mean?: Vagary means an erratic, unpredictable occurrence or action.

Adapted from Wiktionary: vagary (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this page: “How to use vagary in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/vagary. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.