1,400 new words in our dictionary! — Parasocial, glow-up, promposal & more
1,400 new words in our dictionary! — More

sidetracks

verb

present tense third-person singular of sidetrack
as in deviates

Related Words

Relevance

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for sidetracks
  1. deviates
  2. averts
  3. diverts
  4. deflects
  5. swerves
  6. redirects
  7. switches
  8. shifts
Verb
  • But just like in the series’ preceding season, The Ed Gein Story, this one deviates from its titular character to pad itself out.
    — Roxana Hadadi, Vulture, 18 Sep. 2026
  • The actual number of prime numbers deviates from the prediction.
    — Manon Bischoff, Scientific American, 15 Sep. 2026
Definition of deviates
Verb
  • At every save point, the game forces James to stare at his reflection, and after the story’s plot twist, James averts his eyes, unable to face his own guilt.
    — Zackery Cuevas, PC Magazine, 21 Sep. 2026
  • The author's experience shows caution, though slower, averts problems, contrasting with industry's rapid deployments that often encounter issues.
    — Shannon McKeen, Forbes.com, 29 June 2026
Definition of averts
Verb
  • Providing false or misleading information to law enforcement undermines those efforts and unnecessarily diverts officers and resources away from members of our community who may need immediate police assistance.
    — Brie Stimson, FOXNews.com, 19 Sep. 2026
  • Instead, your body diverts its limited calories elsewhere, pushing hair follicles into a two- to four-month resting phase before hair eventually sheds.
    — Maggie Ryan, Flow Space, 25 Aug. 2026
Definition of diverts
Verb
  • This imaging works by measuring how rock deflects the cosmic particles flying at these objects.
    — Jesse Liu, The Conversation, 14 Sep. 2026
  • Ted deflects the questions, but the friendly encounter only seems to make Alice dig in.
    — Keith Phipps, Vulture, 2 Sep. 2026
Definition of deflects
Verb
  • Surveillance video obtained by ABC7 New York shows two men fighting in the street before gunshots ring out, and a vehicle swerves around the moped, appearing to flee the scene.
    — Rebecca White, New York Daily News, 23 Aug. 2026
  • The artist adopts a schizoid persona, with multiple voices flowing out of him, and swerves between lucid social criticism—about the history of slavery or of higher education—and total gibberish.
    — Zachary Fine, New Yorker, 10 Aug. 2026
Definition of swerves
Verb
  • Goddard’s diminution is part of a broader pivot at NASA as the White House redirects the space agency to put American astronauts on the moon by 2028.
    — Eric Niiler, Scientific American, 22 Sep. 2026
  • By this time next year, Baltimore could have a brand-new system that redirects non-violent emergency calls to mental health professionals.
    — Chevall Pryce, Baltimore Sun, 14 Sep. 2026
Definition of redirects
Verb
  • That will change slightly in 2027, when the MLS calendar switches to a summer-to-spring season.
    — Felipe Cardenas, New York Times, 14 Sep. 2026
  • The swift rebound when a nation switches from a wobbling to hard currency is a scenario Hanke has witnessed many times before in his adventures as the Money Doctor.
    — Shawn Tully, Fortune, 20 Aug. 2026
Definition of switches
Verb
  • The evolution of strategies can lead to stable populations, bistable populations (where the population flips between two stable strategies), or limit cycles, where the population shifts continuously among multiple strategies.
    — Chris Lee, ArsTechnica, 11 Sep. 2026
  • Try meeting their needs first and see if their behavior shifts.
    — Juli Fraga, CNBC, 6 Sep. 2026
Definition of shifts
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

sidetracking
sidetracks
sideward
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Sidetracks.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/sidetracks. Accessed 28 Sep. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of fungible

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide

Why is '-ed' sometimes pronounced at the end of a word?
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

12 Lovely and Unusual Words for the Natural World

Why do we 'bury the lede?'
See More

Popular

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

7 Great Ways to Say 'Great'

The Longest Long Words List
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
image of the words cracker fly and sale arranged in a triangle with the word fire in the middle
Triple Play Quiz Find the word that pairs with each of the three g...
See All