Part of speech: verb
Origin: Late Latin, mid 17th century
Alter in appearance, especially by adding different colors.
Make more diverse or varied.
Examples of Variegate in a sentence
"Rebecca wanted to variegate her painting to draw more eyes to it during exhibition."
"The President plans to variegate her cabinet to include more perspectives."
Popularity Over Time
This word stems from the Late Latin “variegatus,” meaning "made of various sorts or colors." It came from the past participle of “variegare,” meaning "diversify with different colors," from “varius,” meaning "spotted, changing, varying."
Did you Know?
You’d be surprised how many plants have the word “variegated” in their names. There’s variegated liriope, also known as monkey grass; variegated shell ginger; variegated flax lily; variegated pittosporum; variegated string of hearts; variegated fiddle leaf figs, and more. All of these plants have differently colored zones in their leaves and sometimes their stems. This usually occurs because of a cell mutation within the plant from the lack of the green pigment found in chlorophyll.