vagary

It covers the whole wide world of early-19th-century trade, and it evinces a worldly acceptance of human disparity and vagary.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 16, 2018

This common meaning for outrage actually grows out of a vagary of folk etymology.

From Slate ● Dec. 17, 2014

If Kiprotich's victory was surprising, it also represented the vagary and possibility of running 26.2 miles.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 13, 2012

Mr. DeJohnette and the bassist Dave Holland didn’t miss a beat, but the abruptness of the shift underscored a feeling of haste and vagary in the first half.

From New York Times ● Jun. 26, 2010

As Sullivan saw it, “Burnham came out of his somnambulistic vagary and joined in. He was keen enough to understand that ‘Uncle Dick’”—meaning Hunt—“had done him a needed favor.”

From "The Devil in the White City" by Erik Larson

Time to focus less on the vagaries of geopolitics and more on how you can have a great rest of your night.

From Slate ● Aug. 17, 2026

And if so, just who, on a day when the vagaries of links golf on the blustery Lancashire coast propelled several players into realistic contention and just as quickly swept their aspirations aside.

From BBC ● Aug. 2, 2026

The genius of hit songs, beyond technical artistry—and the vagaries of timing—is the ability to mainline emotion.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 5, 2026

The vagaries of that schedule will require flexibility and depth and will likely force Dos Santos to rotate players in and out of the lineup.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 10, 2026

His enlistment seemed just another of Leper’s vagaries, such as the time he slept on top of Mount Katahdin in Maine where each morning the sun first strikes United States territory.

From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles