n. 1. a. A change or variation: an economy vulnerable to the vicissitudes of the oil market. b. A usually unforeseen change in circumstance or experience that affects one's life, especially in a trying way: the vicissitudes of childhood. See Synonyms at difficulty. 2. The quality of being changeable; mutability: the vicissitude of fortune. [Latin vicissitūdō, from vicissim, in turn, probably from vicēs, pl. of *vix, change; see weik-2 in the Appendix of Indo-European roots.] |
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