vicissitude
vi·cis·si·tude
noun
a variation in circumstances or fortune at different times in your life or in the development of something
- “the project was subject to the usual vicissitudes of exploratory research”
mutability in life or nature (especially successive alternation from one condition to another)
Origin
From Middle French vicissitude, from Latin vicissitūdō (“change”), from vicissim (“on the other hand, in turn”), from vicis (“change, vicissitude”), whence Portuguese vez and French fois (“time (as in "next time"), occurrence”).
Phrases
- vice versa
Related words
Broader terms
WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.