as in bohemians
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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Recent Examples of deviants
Cool people aren't merely deviants.
—
Caleb Warren, CNBC, 20 Aug. 2025
Caleb Warren, CNBC, 20 Aug. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for deviants
Noun
-
Carl Anka Trent Alexander-Arnold’s England career is a fascinating case study in why team sports can prefer the orthodox to the mavericks.—
The Athletic UK Staff,
New York Times,
13 May 2026
-
The confluence at Black Mountain of émigré artists like Josef and Anni Albers with homegrown mavericks like John Cage and Buckminster Fuller (who constructed his first geodesic dome there) marked an early flowering of this mode of learning, which was still in fine health decades later.—
Christopher Benfey,
The New York Review of Books,
19 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
Here’s hoping that’s not the case, because Arjona looks more than capable of taking out these glowing-eyed freaks all by herself.—
Fran Hoepfner,
Vulture,
2 June 2026
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They were considered to have strange physical afflictions or weak mental attitudes, and some people with endocrine diseases were even dismissed as ‘freaks’ and heckled in circuses or locked away in institutions.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
20 May 2026
Noun
-
But what the New Yorker writer left behind is some of the finest prose of the 20th century, focusing primarily on the eccentrics, scalawags, seamen, and other denizens of New York’s dank corners.—
Air Mail,
Air Mail,
2 May 2026
-
The town’s overflowing with charming Midwest eccentrics, including a cocky mayor (Henry Winkler) and a welcoming barkeep (Lena Headey).—
Randy Myers,
Mercury News,
15 Apr. 2026
Noun
-
At least Guillén still speaks his mind on the Sox’s pre- and postgame shows, so maybe there’s hope for nonconformists after all.—
Paul Sullivan,
Chicago Tribune,
22 Mar. 2026
Noun
-
Those who don’t cling to the faith are heretics.—
Kerry Jackson,
Oc Register,
4 Feb. 2026
-
Among those applauding at the end was Carmen Chaplin, one of the director’s granddaughters, and even heretics, whose faith in Chaplin is fickle, will have been swept along.—
Anthony Lane,
New Yorker,
22 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Deviants.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/deviants. Accessed 5 Jun. 2026.
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