Definitions for: Vicissitude


[n] mutability in life or nature (especially successive alternation from one condition to another)
[n] 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"



Webster (1913) Definition: Vi*cis"si*tude, n. [L. vicissitudo, fr. vicis
change, turn: cf. F. vicissitude. See Vicarious.]
1. Regular change or succession from one thing to another;
alternation; mutual succession; interchange.

God made two great lights . . . To illuminate the
earth and rule the day In their vicissitude, and
rule the night. --Milton.

2. Irregular change; revolution; mutation.

This man had, after many vicissitudes of fortune,
sunk at last into abject and hopeless poverty.
--Macaulay.

See Also: fluctuation, mutability, mutableness, variation

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