Flock vs Variety - What's the difference?
flock | variety | Related terms |
A large number of birds, especially those gathered together for the purpose of migration.
A large number of animals, especially sheep or goats kept together.
Those served by a particular pastor or shepherd.
* {{quote-book
, year=1995
, author=Green Key Books
, title=God's Word to the Nations (John 10:16)
* Tennyson
A large number of people.
* Bible, 2 Macc. xiv. 14
To congregate in or head towards a place in large numbers.
* Dryden
(obsolete) To flock to; to crowd.
* 1609 , Taylor
To treat a pool with chemicals to remove suspended particles.
Coarse tufts of wool or cotton used in bedding
A lock of wool or hair.
*(William Shakespeare) (c.1564–1616)
*:I prythee, Tom, beat Cut's saddle, put a few flocks in the point [pommel].
Very fine sifted woollen refuse, especially that from shearing the nap of cloths, formerly used as a coating for wallpaper to give it a velvety or clothlike appearance; also, the dust of vegetable fibre used for a similar purpose.
*
*:There was a neat hat-and-umbrella stand, and the stranger's weary feet fell soft on a good, serviceable dark-red drugget, which matched in colour the flock -paper on the walls.
The quality of being varied; diversity.
A specific variation of something.
A number of different things.
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4
, passage=One morning I had been driven to the precarious refuge afforded by the steps of the inn, after rejecting offers from the Celebrity to join him in a variety of amusements. But even here I was not free from interruption, for he was seated on a horse-block below me, playing with a fox terrier.}}
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-01, author=Katie L. Burke, volume=101, issue=1, page=64, magazine=(American Scientist)
, title= A state of constant change.
(taxonomy) A rank in a taxonomic classification, below species and subspecies.
(cybernetics) The total number of distinct states of a system.
(cybernetics) Logarithm of the base 2 of the total number of distinct states of a system.
(linguistics) A term used for a specific form of a language, neutral to whether that form is a dialect, accent, register, etc. and to its prestige level.
The class of all algebraic structures of a given signature satisfying a given set of identities.
Flock is a related term of variety.
As nouns the difference between flock and variety
is that flock is a large number of birds, especially those gathered together for the purpose of migration or flock can be coarse tufts of wool or cotton used in bedding while variety is the quality of being varied; diversity.As a verb flock
is to congregate in or head towards a place in large numbers or flock can be to coat a surface with dense fibers or particles.flock
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) . More at (l).Noun
(en noun)citation, passage=I also have other sheep that are not from this pen. I must lead them. They, too, will respond to my voice. So they will be one flock with one shepherd. }}
- As half amazed, half frighted all his flock .
- The heathen came to Nicanor by flocks .
Synonyms
* congregation, bunch, gaggle, horde, host, legion, litter, nest, rabble, swarm, throng, wakeVerb
(en verb)- People flocked to the cinema to see the new film.
- Friends daily flock .
- Good fellows, trooping, flocked me so.
Etymology 2
From (etyl) .Noun
(en noun)variety
English
Alternative forms
* (rare)Noun
(varieties)Ecological Dependency, passage=In his first book since the 2008 essay collection Natural Acts: A Sidelong View of Science and Nature , David Quammen looks at the natural world from yet another angle: the search for the next human pandemic, what epidemiologists call “the next big one.” His quest leads him around the world to study a variety of suspect zoonoses—animal-hosted pathogens that infect humans.}}
