vicissity
Syllables: vi·cis·si·tyUK[vɪˈsɪs.ɨˌti]
vicissity noun: a change, as of fortune.
Noun
vicissity (plural vicissities)
- A change, as of fortune.
- While to your ears, a father does unfold / The various scenes by turns which checquer'd o'er / My life, vicissities of bliss and woe. / When our offended Maker deem'd to cheer / Offending man, with promises of love, / And reconciling mercy, tell me, Eve, / Associate dear, in fortune's every change...1763, Thomas Newcomb (translating Salomon Gessner's German work to English), The Death of Abel. A Sacred Poem. Written Originally [by Salomon Gessner] in the German language, attempted in the stile...
- It is well enough known that species of the lower forms of plant life, such as ferns and mosses amid the vicissities of change of situation, have spread over both hemispheres without such a departure from the central type as would constitute a distinct species; but is this true as regards higher...1885, Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society of Tasmania, page 164
Forms of vicissity
| plural | vicissities |
|---|
Origin of vicissity
From viciss(itous) + -ity, from Latin vicissitas. Mentioned since at least 1717, in Elisha Coles's An English Dictionary.
Questions about vicissity
- What does vicissity mean?
- Vicissity means a change, as of fortune.
- What part of speech is vicissity?
- Vicissity is a noun.
- How do you pronounce vicissity?
- Vicissity is pronounced [vɪˈsɪs.ɨˌti] (UK).
- What is the plural of vicissity?
- The plural of vicissity is vicissities.
Words near vicissity in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: vicissity (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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Cite this entry: “vicissity.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/vicissity. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.