diversity

[dih-vur-si-tee, dahy-] /dɪˈvɜr sɪ ti, daɪ-/
noun, plural diversities.
1.
the state or fact of being diverse; difference; unlikeness:
diversity of opinion.
2.
variety; multiformity.
3.
a point of difference.
Origin
1300-50; Middle English diversite < Anglo-French < Latin dīversitās. See diverse, -ity
Related forms
overdiversity, noun
Synonyms
2. change, difference, variation, dissimilarity.
Examples from the web for diversity
  • For difference of character leads to difference of aims, and the result of such diversity is to estrange friends.
  • The university's commitment to diversity, specifically, appealed to her.
  • The game should encourage diversity.
  • Results showed that participants were indeed aware of biodiversity for plant species -- though less so for bird diversity.
  • The advantage of seeds is their low cost and great diversity.
  • That diversity made dogs an interesting puzzle for geneticists.
  • The wetlands of this ecoregion host a diversity of waterfowl and wading birds.
  • Fossils tell a new story about the diversity of hominid diets.
  • In the latter, bird diversity was limited to horned larks, killdeer and cowbirds.
  • However, the island lacks the high levels of diversity seen in mainland .
British Dictionary definitions for diversity

diversity

/daɪˈvɜːsɪtɪ/
noun
1.
the state or quality of being different or varied
2.
a point of difference
3.
(logic) the relation that holds between two entities when and only when they are not identical; the property of being numerically distinct
Word Origin and History for diversity
n.

mid-14c., "quality of being diverse," mostly in a neutral sense, from Old French diversité (12c.) "difference, diversity, unique feature, oddness:" also "wickedness, perversity," from Latin diversitatem (nominative diversitas) "contrariety, contradiction, disagreement;" also, as a secondary sense, "difference, diversity," from diversus "turned different ways" (in Late Latin "various"), past participle of divertere (see divert).

Negative meaning, "being contrary to what is agreeable or right; perversity, evil" existed in English from late 15c. but was obsolete from 17c. Diversity as a virtue in a nation is an idea from the rise of modern democracies in the 1790s, where it kept one faction from arrogating all power (but this was not quite the modern sense, as ethnicity, gender, sexual identity, etc. were not the qualities in mind):

The dissimilarity in the ingredients which will compose the national government, and still more in the manner in which they will be brought into action in its various branches, must form a powerful obstacle to a concert of views in any partial scheme of elections. There is sufficient diversity in the state of property, in the genius, manners, and habits of the people of the different parts of the Union, to occasion a material diversity of disposition in their representatives towards the different ranks and conditions in society. ["Federalist" #60, Feb. 26, 1788 (Hamilton)]
Specific focus (in a positive sense) on race, gender, etc. is from 1992.