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Vicissitude vs Vacillate - What's the difference?

vicissitude | vacillate |

As a noun vicissitude

is regular change or succession from one thing to another, or one part of a cycle to the next; alternation; mutual succession; interchange.

As a verb vacillate is

to sway unsteadily from one side to the other; oscillate.

vicissitude

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • Regular change or succession from one thing to another, or one part of a cycle to the next; alternation; mutual succession; interchange.
  • (often, in the plural) a change, especially in one's life or fortunes.
  • * 1667 , , Paradise Lost , vii, 351,
  • And God made.. the Stars, and set them in the firmament of Heaven to illuminate the Earth, and rule the day in their vicissitude ...
  • * 2003 , "US redeployments afoot in Asia", Christian Science Monitor , Nov. 18, Pg. 6.,
  • The vicissitudes of war in Iraq cast a dreary backdrop for Donald Rumsfeld's first visit to Asian military allies since he became US Defense Secretary in 2001.
  • * Seneca
  • Happy is the man who can endure the highest and lowest fortune. He who has endured such vicissitudes with equanimity has deprived misfortune of its power.

    Synonyms

    * ups and downs (informal)

    vacillate

    English

    Verb

    (vacillat)
  • To sway unsteadily from one side to the other; oscillate.
  • * 1910:
  • Its [the barometer's] normal register in the Paumotus [the Tuamotus] was 29.90, and it was quite customary to see it vacillate between 29.85 and 30.00, or even 30.05; [...]
  • To swing indecisively from one course of action or opinion to another.
  • * 2004: , Character: Profiles in Presidential Courage
  • On the streets of Berlin, Ruth and her compatriots vacillated "between hope and despair."

    Synonyms

    * (to sway from one side to the other) stagger * (to swing indecisively) blow hot and cold, waffle

    Anagrams

    * ----