Noah Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language

1. (n.) The quality or state of being various; intermixture or succession of different things; diversity; multifariousness.

2. (n.) That which is various.

3. (n.) A number or collection of different things; a varied assortment; as, a variety of cottons and silks.

4. (n.) Something varying or differing from others of the same general kind; one of a number of things that are akin; a sort; as, varieties of wood, land, rocks, etc.

5. (n.) An individual, or group of individuals, of a species differing from the rest in some one or more of the characteristics typical of the species, and capable either of perpetuating itself for a period, or of being perpetuated by artificial means; hence, a subdivision, or peculiar form, of a species.

6. (n.) In inorganic nature, one of those forms in which a species may occur, which differ in minor characteristics of structure, color, purity of composition, etc.