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
Brandon Harris, The New Yorker, 7 Aug. 2024
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
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
The two were easy scapegoats in a media culture and news environment that often pathologized Black masculinity as deviant and dangerous.
—Brandon Harris, The New Yorker, 7 Aug. 2024
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
See all Example Sentences for deviant
Recent Examples of Synonyms for deviant
Adjective
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Compared to male rats that didn’t consume any dye, male rats that ate the most had a significantly higher incidence of tumors — both malignant and benign — as well as abnormal cell growth in the thyroid.Karen Kaplan, Los Angeles Times, 15 Jan. 2025
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Notably, two or more abnormal body fat measurements could still classify an individual as obese, regardless of BMI.Dr. Jennifer Miao, ABC News, 14 Jan. 2025
Noun
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Trump backing TikTok is something of a maverick position in Washington.Bobby Allyn, NPR, 10 Jan. 2025
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The odds were stacked against Britain until a group of renegade, maverick soldiers (the SAS Rogue Heroes) decided to fight against a more powerful enemy in a new way.Matt Brennan, Los Angeles Times, 10 Jan. 2025
Adjective
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Labeling something so personal feels almost unnatural.Ron Hart, SPIN, 10 Jan. 2025
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While there are certainly products that can be used across different hair textures, lengths, curl patterns, thicknesses, colors (natural and unnatural), and needs, hair products are often created with specific consumers in mind.Erin Parker, Allure, 3 Jan. 2025
Noun
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My dedication, to help the waifs and strays and eccentrics of the music world together, continues to this day.Andy Greene, Rolling Stone, 11 Oct. 2024
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Robert Redford delivers folksy wisdom as a local eccentric who once had his own dragon encounter, and even Karl Urban’s greedy logger is more of a nuisance than an outright villain.Josh Bell, Vulture, 20 Dec. 2024
Thesaurus Entries Near deviant
Cite this Entry
“Deviant.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/deviant. Accessed 20 Jan. 2025.
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