as in abnormal
departing from some accepted standard of what is normal
some studies show that many violent criminals begin exhibiting deviant behavior in early childhood
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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
as in maverick
a person who does not conform to generally accepted standards or customs
branded as social deviants by a society that did not value self-expression
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Examples Sentences
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Recent Examples of deviant
Christopher R. Browning, The New York Review of Books, 1 Dec. 2022
The Florida bill’s opponents are worried about a world in which teachers have no meaningful way to discuss the real world inhabited by their students, which risks leaving students with the impression that non-straight or non-gender-conforming individuals are somehow deviant.
—Washington Post, 12 Apr. 2022
Hope King, Axios, 24 July 2024
When Heather’s two mommies came to my school, there was nothing deviant about them.
—For Carroll County Times, Baltimore Sun, 23 July 2024
See all Example Sentences for deviant 
Adjective
Jähner does not comment on no one seeming to have drawn the lesson that the anti-Semitic stereotype of dishonest and deviant economic behavior that Germans had long identified as a Jewish racial characteristic had turned out to be situationally, not racially, caused.
—Christopher R. Browning, The New York Review of Books, 1 Dec. 2022
The Florida bill’s opponents are worried about a world in which teachers have no meaningful way to discuss the real world inhabited by their students, which risks leaving students with the impression that non-straight or non-gender-conforming individuals are somehow deviant.
—Washington Post, 12 Apr. 2022
Noun
This new focus — however deviant and realistic — may be a necessity as the company's core business of EVs faces pricklier market and political conditions.
—Hope King, Axios, 24 July 2024
When Heather’s two mommies came to my school, there was nothing deviant about them.
—For Carroll County Times, Baltimore Sun, 23 July 2024
See all Example Sentences for deviant
Recent Examples of Synonyms for deviant
Adjective
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The decrease is attributed to the non-recurrence of prior year abnormal backlog deliveries and lower total demand.Quartz Bot, Quartz, 7 Nov. 2024
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Treatments for abnormal ferritin levels may include eating iron-rich foods like lean salmon, leafy green vegetables, and beans.Lindsay Curtis, Health, 5 Nov. 2024
Noun
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Ives’s legendary status initially rested on his reputation as a maverick pioneer who supposedly had beaten Schoenberg in the race to the atonal pole.Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 4 Nov. 2024
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Many lament that the shortlist for the Ballon d'Or is now comprised of players who aren't mavericks or 'ballers' but stars whose genius is excelling or dominating a particular system.Zak Garner-Purkis, Forbes, 29 Oct. 2024
Adjective
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While some can be used across different hair textures, lengths, curl patterns, thicknesses, colors (natural and unnatural), and concerns, many are created with specific consumers and their needs in mind.Christa Joanna Lee, Allure, 2 Nov. 2024
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Now Morisseau, who is half Haitian and half Black American, is exploring a new setting, that of urbane Port-au-Prince, some years after the 2010 earthquake, a natural disaster that brought to the fore, with devastating clarity, the unnatural cycles of exploitation that threaten to define Haiti.Doreen St. Félix, The New Yorker, 2 Nov. 2024
Noun
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The father and the mother are played by two of modern cinema’s most supremely talented eccentrics, Michael Shannon and Tilda Swinton.Bilge Ebiri, Vulture, 13 Sep. 2024
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Designers traditionally present themselves in public as preening demigods or fussy, difficult eccentrics, but neither is the vibe that Porte Jacquemus gives off.Nathan Heller, Vogue, 17 Oct. 2024
Thesaurus Entries Near deviant
Cite this Entry
“Deviant.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/deviant. Accessed 21 Nov. 2024.
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