Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Differing from a norm or from the accepted standards of a society.
- n. One that differs from a norm, especially a person whose behavior and attitudes differ from accepted social standards.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Deviating; straying; wandering.
Wiktionary
- adj. Of or pertaining to a deviation; characterized by deviation from an expectation or a social standard.
- n. A person who deviates, especially from norms of social behavior.
- n. A thing, phenomenon, or trend that deviates from an expectation or pattern.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. obsolete Deviating.
- adj. having behavior or characteristics differing from that which is normal or expected, especially in an undesirable or socially disapproved manner.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a person whose behavior deviates from what is acceptable especially in sexual behavior
- adj. markedly different from an accepted norm
Etymologies
- Middle English deviaunt, from Late Latin dēviāns, dēviant-, present participle of dēviāre, to deviate; see deviate. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Late Friday, the military rulers issued a stern warning that they will crack down on what they called "deviant groups," which they blamed for a spike in crime and violence.”
“Last night the military rulers issued a stern warning that they would crack down on what they called "deviant groups", which they blamed for an increase in crime and violence.”
“Homosexuals and heterosexuals are both natural people, with no difference between them in humanity, make or nature … The real deviant is the one who is always trying to oust the other.”
Global Voices in English » Arab World: Trouble for Gay Travels in the Muslim World
“Thus you have a feedback loop in which prejudice against those identifiable as deviant is validated by the very disgust that motivates it, and propagating that prejudice is validated by the pride that results.”
“By accepting diversity we challenge these principles on which the deviant is excluded as abnormal, contaminating.”
“James, well I think that anybody who engages in deviant sex be it women and underage boys or child molesters or homosexuals should be punished for their action.”
“P.S. - I set up that foot-tall figure of Pope John Paul II, and it's a tad disconcerting at first to be engaged in deviant sexual practices while he stares blithely on, but then you figure it's cool that he's watching and still just blessing it, and that's pretty cool.”
“In researching her latest book, "A Strange Stirring: The Feminine Mystique in American Women at the Dawn of the 1960s," Ms. Coontz found that in the past single people were often called "deviant," "neurotic" and "selfish.”
“In her world Eminem and his ilk are social outcasts and any kind of so-called deviant behavior is confronted.”
“The report by the independent Project on Government Oversight, or POGO, cites complaints from nearly 10 percent of the guards working for the ArmorGroup North America, now owned by Wackenhut Services Inc, the most explosive, charges of what POGO calls deviant hazing and humiliation.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘deviant’.
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macabre
words associated with the macabre & horror.
( open list, randomness )
more:
http://www.wordnik.co...ghastly, grisly, culeus, silly, gruesome, horrid, morbid, angelic, shocking, hideous, ghoulish, frightful and 136 more...
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Words build meanings from origins( et...
These come from gamma meditation ,I think.
discursive, exogenous, machinations, purportedly, sumptuous, congruity, cantankerous, incongruous, festoon, hessian, ratiocinative, stratigraphic and 2053 more...
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scoundrels and bastards
already several of these lists, but I wanted my own
varlet, scoundrel, slubberdegullion, bastard, hooligan, boor, churl, thug, cad, ne'er-do-well, miscreant, minx and 85 more...
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the first list
an immense, grandiloquent list that loads like a thousand years sentence in stone. new words are in the other lists.
ridiculous, brummagem, predicament, sanctimonious, vapid, eschew, admonish, auspicious, capitulation, enumerate, lachrymose, tenet and 1648 more...
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gcherches's Words
serendipity, roadrunner, inner child, coagulant, esquire, vicissitude, idiot savant, mitigation, affirmation, affirmative, diatribe, affirmative action and 185 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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Miss Sunshine
she's such a joy.
bereaved, bitter, cheerless, dejected, depressed, despairing, despondent, disconsolate, dismal, distressed, doleful, downcast and 405 more...
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Vocab
Words that I come across, and go blank, or want to clarify.
nefarious, edifice, malevolent, ostensible, folderol, bauble, livid, amnesty, calculus, saddlery, maisonette, cuisse and 423 more...
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katiad's Words
exquisite, obnoxious, noxious, extravaganza, whirlwind, whirling, wild, spinster, existential, chaos, zephyr, blasphemy and 310 more...
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My Words
Words that I use regularly and consider mine.
zen, poser, savvy, angst, flustered, bitter, whatsoever, farfetched, indeed, scenario, inevitable, salvage and 134 more...
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JJMARLETTE's Words
phantasmagorical, antidisestablishm..., gargantuan, apocryphal, maim, disembowel, viscous, apothecary, seminal, exponential, googol, googolplex and 90 more...
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stpeter's Words
abase, abasement, abashed, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abhorrent, abide, abject, ablation, abnegation and 3536 more...
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Words + Phrases I Like
apotheosis, antipode, penumbra, umbra, bellatrix, zephyr, oblivion, nefarious, wicked, requiem, catalyst, ire and 89 more...
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fliti's Words
panache, mushaboom, aubergine, serpentine, glimpse, schadenfreude, syzygy, plethora, zeitgeist, defenestrate, callipygian, ubiquitous and 239 more...
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implify's Words
gaia, eviscerate, lament, ephemeral, urbane, blight, variant, schadenfreude, hubbub, iteration, feign, hobgoblin and 243 more...
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Creative Onomatopoeia
Words that sound like what they mean, but they're not *technically* onomatopoetic.
(another edit: this list is morphing into something I can't quite describe. But I still like it.)ugly, icon, hang, weenie, bell, zit, ennui, sour, speed, rankle, muddle, disgruntle and 129 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for deviant.
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