Diversify

How to spell diversify

9 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce diversify

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does diversify mean?

1. verbTo make something more varied, or to spread interests, investments, or activities across a wider range to reduce risk.

Diversify in a sentence

• Investors often spread their money across sectors to diversify a portfolio.

• The firm decided to diversify into renewable energy after years in oil.

Where does diversify come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word traces back to the Latin diversus, the past participle of divertere, which literally meant 'to turn aside' or 'to turn in different directions', from di- 'apart' and vertere 'to turn'. Latin later built the verb diversificare, 'to make various or different', and English borrowed it through the Old French diversifier in the late 1300s. For centuries it carried the general sense of making something varied, and only in the modern era of investing and business did it settle into its now familiar meaning of spreading interests, holdings, or activities to reduce risk. The same vertere root for turning sits inside a whole family of English words, including 'convert', 'reverse', and 'divert'. Remembering that hidden 'verse' in the middle, the part that means turning, is a useful anchor for spelling the unstressed central vowel correctly.

How the word is built

• divers- (from Latin diversus: turned different ways)
• -ify (verb suffix: to make or cause to become)