vicissitude

plural vicissitudes

1. in pluraloftenRegular change or succession from one thing to another, or one part of a cycle to the next; alternation; mutual succession; interchange; variability.

   Some learn humility. Some choose ego. Some are prepared for the vicissitudes of fate, both positive and negative. Others are not. Which will you choose? Who will you be?

   2016, Ryan Holiday, Ego is the Enemy, page 9

   Synonyms: ups and downs

2. in pluraloftenA change, especially in one's life or fortunes.

   And God made.. the Stars, and set them in the firmament of Heaven to illuminate the Earth, and rule the day in their vicissitude...

   1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

   5 more examples

   Among the vicissitudes incident to life, no event could have filled me with greater anxieties than that of which the notification was transmitted by your order, and received on the fourteenth day of the present month.

   1789, George Washington, First Inaugural Address

   Only a handful of rock musicians have become genuine icons - larger-than-life symbolic figures whose personal triumphs and vicissitudes seem to mirror the ups and downs of rock as a whole, and sometimes of the society that nurtures it. Often, rock icons become the objects of personality cults that tend to overshadow their musical accomplishments.

   1981 May 31, Robert Palmer, “Two Icons of Rock Music”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 18 Apr 2023

   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.

   2003 November 18, “US redeployments afoot in Asia”, in Christian Science Monitor, page 6

   Engaged intellectuals were obliged to take a stand on the side of progress and History, whatever the occasional moral vicissitudes.

   2005, Tony Judt, “Culture Wars”, in Postwar: A history of Europe since 1945, London: Vintage Books, published 2010, →ISBN

   Despite all the monarchy’s vicissitudes, however, Queen Elizabeth II, a figure from another age, who was stiff and formal and not noticeably particularly warm and empathetic, had won and retained the affection, loyalty and support of the overwhelming majority of the British public, who respected her for her diligence and sense of duty.

   2022 September 8, Stephen Bates, “Queen Elizabeth II obituary”, in The Guardian, archived from the original on 16 Dec 2022