vicissitude

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: C1 — Advanced

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun a variation in circumstances or fortune at different times in your life or in the development of something
  2. noun mutability in life or nature (especially successive alternation from one condition to another)

Etymology

From Middle French vicissitude, from Latin vicissitūdō (“change”), from vicissim (“on the other hand, in turn”), from vicis (“change, vicissitude”), whence Spanish vez and French fois (“time (as in "next time"), occurrence”).

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