Diverse

How to spell diverse

7 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce diverse

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does diverse mean?

1. adjectiveShowing a great deal of variety; made up of many different kinds of people or things.

Diverse in a sentence

• The city attracts a diverse mix of workers from every continent.

• The museum holds a diverse collection of ancient coins and modern art.

Where does diverse come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word comes from the Latin diversus, the past participle of divertere, which meant 'to turn aside' or 'to turn in different directions'. That verb was formed from the prefix dis-, carrying the sense of 'apart' or 'in different ways', joined to vertere, meaning 'to turn'. Originally the Latin sense leaned toward 'turned different ways' and even 'contrary' or 'hostile', before settling into the modern idea of variety and difference. English took it up in the fourteenth century by way of Old French divers, and at first the two spellings diverse and divers coexisted freely. The same vertere root that gives the spelled vers in the middle of the word also sits inside everyday relatives such as 'reverse', 'convert', and 'version', which is a handy reminder that the s, not a c, belongs in diverse.

How the word is built

• di- (apart, in different directions, from dis-)
• vers (turned, from Latin vertere 'to turn')
• -e