vicissitude

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   mutability in life or nature, especially successive alternation from one condition to another

   The lifecycle of a butterfly shows the vicissitudes of animal life.

2. 2
   noun

   a variation in circumstances or fortune at different times in your life or in the development of something

   The project was subject to the usual vicissitudes of exploratory research.

From Middle French vicissitude, from Latin vicissitūdō (“change”), from vicissim (“on the other hand, in turn”), from vicis (“change, vicissitude”), whence Spanish vez and French fois (“time (as in "next time"), occurrence”).

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