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Examples of deviant in a Sentence
a study of deviant behavior among criminals
some studies show that many violent criminals begin exhibiting deviant behavior in early childhood
Recent Examples of deviant from the Web
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Snowflake yeasts have their own way of purging themselves of deviant cells.
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Those are the questions Virginia Tech researchers Mattia Samory and Tanushree Mitra, who study deviant behavior in online discussions, tried to answer by analyzing a decade's worth of Reddit conspiracy talk.
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At turns, depending on your decisions, the government response to the deviant AI crisis is a laughably drastic, society-crippling overreaction and/or a severe military underreaction to a major threat.
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The beast in Qiu Miaojin’s modernist novels is the consciousness in women that is aware of a deviant lust for women’s bodies.
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The game takes on a whole new dimension, as participants not only tackle traditional challenges but also try to sneak a deviant move by fellow players without apprehension.
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Fuller in fact is subjected to a humiliating interrogation about possible deviant behavior, but lies his way out of it.
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Spotlight told the story of a gritty investigation into the deviant behavior of priests that was undertaken by the Boston Post as the financial sun was beginning to set on American newspapers.
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Attempts to cure what was viewed as deviant behavior or mental illness included electroshock therapy, massive hormone doses, intense psychotherapy and psychiatric hospitalization.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'deviant.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
deviant & deviate
Deviant and deviate share a common root (the Latin deviare “to wander off the road, swerve, deviate”) and have some similarities in meaning, but they differ in notable ways. Deviant has functioned in English as an adjective (since the 15th century) and as a noun (since the early 20th century), in each case with a sense that suggests a straying from an accepted norm or from what is considered standard behavior. In contrast to deviant’s socially prescriptive connotations, the verb deviate often implies a less judgmental sense of swerving from the usual way (as in “he never deviated from his routine of drinking coffee with breakfast.”)
Origin and Etymology of deviant
see 1deviate
NEW! Time Traveler
First Known Use: 15th century
in the meaning defined above
See Words from the same yeardeviant Synonyms
Synonyms
aberrant, aberrational, abnormal, anomalous, atypical, deviate, irregular, unnatural, untypical;
Near Antonyms
common, commonplace, everyday, familiar, ordinary, routine, run-of-the-mill, run-of-the-mine (or run-of-mine), unexceptional, unremarkable, workaday;
archetypal (also archetypical), average, characteristic, representative;
Related Words
rare, uncommon, uncustomary, unusual, unwonted;
bizarre, curious, far-out, funny, kinky, odd, outlandish, out-of-the-way, quirky, remarkable, screwy, strange, wacky (also whacky), way-out, weird, wild;
eccentric, freakish, idiosyncratic, nonconformist, unconventional, unorthodox;
Definition of deviant
plural deviants
: someone or something that deviates from a norm;
especially
: a person who differs markedly (as in social adjustment or behavior) from what is considered normal or acceptable
- social/moral/sexual deviants
- Those who commit crimes also watch TV, go to the grocery store, and have their hair cut. Thus, while our stereotypes may suggest that there is a wide gulf between deviants and conventional people …, the behavior of deviants is often very conventional.
- —Paul C. Higgins and Richard R. Butler
- The theory thus centers on the question: What are the processes through which people are assigned a social identity as deviants by others and enter upon ongoing careers as deviants?
- —Mary Beth Norton et al.
- Acts of punishment thus designate who is in our community by clearly defining who is not in our community. Social solidarity is purchased through the punishment of deviants.
- —Mark Colvin
Recent Examples of deviant from the Web
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Being awake, truly awake, not lying in bed with my eyes scrunched closed, felt deviant.
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As a revolution rises and more deviants become self-aware and long for freedom, a central conflict unsurprisingly arises between humans and their android counterparts.
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Connor, meanwhile, is the Deckard character, an android whose job is to hunt other, malfunctioning androids, known as deviants.
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Penelope once found the two girls in the same bed during a sleepover and called Cheryl a deviant.
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Islam has blocked the path which would lead women to such a deviant lifestyle,’’ Khamenei said.
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As an expert on matters of the brain, the renowned neurosurgeon should have known better than to fall into the grips of a deviant with a split personality.
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Sometimes through deviant, dark comedy, there’s a light there.
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Despite such deviant behaviour by a feckless few, Bycyklen was something of a success.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'deviant.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
First Known Use of deviant
1923
deviant Synonyms
Synonyms
bohemian, enfant terrible, free spirit, heretic, iconoclast, individualist, lone wolf, maverick, nonconformist;
Antonyms
Related Words
character, codger, crackbrain, crackpot, crank, eccentric, freak, kook, nut, oddball, screwball, weirdo;
Medical Dictionary
Learn More about deviant
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Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for deviant Spanish Central: Translation of deviant Nglish: Translation of deviant for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of deviant for Arabic speakers
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