deviant

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“
One should teach children that these folk are choosing a life-style that is unhealthy and deviant, which is, nevertheless, their right.

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Definitions (6)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. adjective Differing from a norm or from the accepted standards of a society.
  2. noun One that differs from a norm, especially a person whose behavior and attitudes differ from accepted social standards.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (2)

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Examples (39)

  • To be a hero you have to learn to be a deviant, because you're always going against the conformity of the group. —  Philip Zimbardo shows how people become monsters ... or heroes
  • If someone does something antisocial and   deviant, that is a manifestation of something that's going on inside. —  TEDBUNDY
  • “Removing the army from the deviant is the same thing as removing the deviant from the army.” I nodded. —  The Enemy by Lee Child
  • Likewise, ideas bubbling up within the PSP system which were negatively deviant -- like a strange tomato that received too much fertilizer -- were treated as a positive learning opportunity for the originator. —  metacool
  • Dilip Prabhavalkar, as the deviant-Gandhian Rao Saab, seems amazed not only at being foiled, but at the power Bachchan invokes with a mere nod and wave. —  NAACHGAANA
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

Used in the same contextWord Family

deviant:   deviants
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English deviaunt, from Late Latin dēviāns, dēviant-, present participle of dēviāre, to deviate; see deviate.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English deviaunt, from Old French deviant, from Late Latin devian(t-)s, present participle of deviare, deviate: see deviate.
 

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