DIVERSITY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does diversity mean? 

• DIVERSITY (noun)
  The noun DIVERSITY has 2 senses:

1. noticeable heterogeneity

2. the condition or result of being changeable

  Familiarity information: DIVERSITY used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DIVERSITY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Noticeable heterogeneity

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

diverseness; diversity; multifariousness; variety

Context example:

the range and variety of his work is amazing

Hypernyms ("diversity" is a kind of...):

heterogeneity; heterogeneousness (the quality of being diverse and not comparable in kind)

Attribute:

varied (characterized by variety)

unvaried; unvarying (lacking variety)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "diversity"):

biodiversity (the diversity of plant and animal life in a particular habitat (or in the world as a whole))

Derivation:

diverse (distinctly dissimilar or unlike)

diverse (many and different)

diversify (make (more) diverse)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The condition or result of being changeable

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("diversity" is a kind of...):

condition; status (a state at a particular time)

Derivation:

diversify (vary in order to spread risk or to expand)

 Context examples 

The locus includes V (variable), J (joining), diversity (D), and C (constant) segments.

(Immunoglobulin Heavy Locus, NCI Thesaurus/LocusLink)

The evolution in the diversity of bacterial, fungal, and viral populations identified using mass sequencing techniques revealed the specificity of each of the phases of the process.

(Scientists validate a new technology that transforms sewage sludge into fertilizer more efficiently, University of Granada)

It also plays a role in the generation of antigen diversity in pre-B and pre-T lymphocytes during early differentiation.

(DNTT Gene, NCI Thesaurus)

Each MAPKK, however, can be activated by more than one MAPKKK, increasing the complexity and diversity of MAPK signalling.

(MAPK Signaling Pathway, NCI Thesaurus/KEGG)

These are more present downstream, which explains why species diversity increases in these areas.

(Amazon fish ‘face new threats’, SciDev.Net)

The domain shows more diversity in structure and function than the highly conserved sequence suggests: at least six alpha helices separated by beta-strands, loops, or turns.

(ARID Domain, NCI Thesaurus)

Any process of gene rearrangement that creates a novel junction among the immunoglobuling-coding variable, diversity, joining or constant segments.

(Immunoglobulin Gene Rearrangement, NCI Thesaurus)

This new perspective on microbial diversity incorporates both local and global scales.

(Study analyzing cells' blueprints reveals new patterns in the global distribution and diversity of ocean microbes, National Science Foundation)

Within the variable domain of an antibody molecule are three regions called hypervariable regions, areas of high sequence diversity.

(Immunoglobulin Hypervariable Region, NCI Thesaurus)

In addition, an elevated diversity of organic molecules may elevate greenhouse gas concentrations in waters because there are more molecules that can be broken down by sunlight penetrating the water.

(Climate change could double greenhouse gas emissions from freshwater ecosystems, University of Cambridge)