DEVIANT Synonyms: 106 Similar and Opposite Words

deviant 1 of 2

adjective

ˈdē-vē-ənt

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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deviant

2 of 2

noun

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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Example Sentences

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Recent Examples of 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

There was a young man suffering from compulsions toward a deviant lifestyle. —

Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Jacobson, Sun Sentinel, 9 Aug. 2024 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 See all Example Sentences for deviant

Recent Examples of Synonyms for deviant

Adjective

Drinking in excess is, in fact, linked to high blood pressure, abnormal heart rhythms, and sometimes even heart failure, according to American Heart Association researchers.

— Jamie Ducharme, TIME, 28 Jan. 2025
Crews from the city of Escondido found no abnormal readings indicating toxic fumes and air-quality monitoring did not indicate any health risks.

— Rob Nikolewski, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Jan. 2025