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Vagary vs Vagueness - What's the difference?

vagary | vagueness |

As nouns the difference between vagary and vagueness

is that vagary is an erratic, unpredictable occurrence or action while vagueness is (uncountable) the condition of being unclear; vague.

vagary

English

Noun

(vagaries)
  • An erratic, unpredictable occurrence or action.
  • * 1871 , , At Last: A Christmas In The West Indies , ch. 8:
    • It now turns out that the Pitch Lake, like most other things, owes its appearance on the surface to no convulsion or vagary at all, but to a most slow, orderly, and respectable process of nature, by which buried vegetable matter, which would have become peat, and finally brown coal, in a temperate climate, becomes, under the hot tropic soil, asphalt and oil.
  • An impulsive or illogical desire; a caprice or whim.
  • * 1905 , , War of the Classes , Preface:
    • And then came the day when my socialism grew respectable,—still a vagary of youth, it was held, but romantically respectable.

    Derived terms

    * vagarity * vagarious

    See also

    * vaguery

    vagueness

    English

    Noun

  • (uncountable) The condition of being unclear; vague.
  • (countable) Something which is vague, or an instance or example of vagueness.
  • * 1857 , Thomas Cogswell Upham, Elements of Mental Philosophy , page 329
    • If a man's deep and conscientious regard for the truth be such that he cannot, consistently with the requisitions of his moral nature, repeat to others mere vaguenesses and uncertainties, he will naturally give such strict and serious attention to the present objects of inquiry and knowledge, that they will remain in his memory afterward with remarkable distinctness and permanency.