Odd variety, by the way (7)
I believe the answer is:
strange
'odd' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'variety by the way' is the wordplay.
'variety' becomes 'range' (I've seen this before).
'by' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'the way' becomes 'st'.
'range' after 'st' is 'STRANGE'.
(Other definitions for strange that I've seen before include "Abnormal" , "Funny" , "Extraordinary" , "Foreign" , "Slightly odd, a bit weird" .)