Deviant Meaning
/ˈdiː.vi.ənt/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjCharacterized by deviation from an expectation or a social standard.
nounA person who deviates, especially from norms of social behavior.
Sentence Examples
Sami had deviant thoughts.
His deviant behavior made others uncomfortable.
The study focused on deviant patterns among teenagers.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The therapist worked with a ____ teenager who frequently broke curfew.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Sami had ____ thoughts.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English devyaunt (“deviating, different”), from Late Latin dēviāns, present participle of dēviō (“to stray, deviate or detour”). The noun is from the adjective, possibly attested in Middle English with the meaning “one who goes astray”. * (DeviantArt member): So called because the website was originally for people who modified (deviated) computer applications.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"He’s like more successful but equally morally abhorrent right-wing undercover operative James O’Keefe’s non-union Mexican equivalent, a dunce whose one move involves incompetently attempting to frame figures of seemingly unimpeachable moral integrity, like Robert Mueller or good old Mayor Pete, as deviant sex criminals like Wohl’s God Donald Trump by unsuccessfully trying to get people to come forward with bogus sexual assault allegations."
— 2019 May 1, Nathan Rabin, “My World of Flops Get a Load of This Maroon Case File #121/My Year of Flops # 18 Jacob Wohl”, in Nathan Rabin's Happy Place:
"In contrast to Flickr, deviantArt offers a broad range of user affordances, enabling both synchronous and asynchronous interpersonal and group communication, as well as networking with other deviants and the surveillance of the work of others (through the deviantWATCH affordance)."
— 2014, Peter Mechant, Lieven De Marez, “Studying Web 2.0 Interactivity: A Research Framework and Two Case Studies”, in Cyber Behavior: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications, Information Science Reference, →ISBN, page 1709:
"While I myself have no problems as far as favoriting instead of commenting is concerned, since a lot of deviants are like this, I thought it was right to tell people how to comment correctly."
— 2009, Grekkikay, post on how to critique art; quoted in Linda Vigdor, “Constructing Learning through the Creative Evaluation of Visual Arts Production”, in Hiesun Cecilia Suhr, editor, Online Evaluation of Creativity and the Arts (Routledge Studies in New Media and Cyberculture), New York, N.Y.; London: Routledge, 2015, section “Creative Evaluation as Practiced in Three Critique Environments”, exhibit 2 (DeviantArt.com), pages 87–88:
"Our data stem from these DD’s and galleries of the corresponding deviants and were acquired directly from dA Headquarters."
— 2013 February 22, Alkim Almila Akdag Salah, Albert Ali Salah, “Flow of innovation in deviantArt: following artists on an online social network site”, in Mind & Society, volume 12, pages 137–149:
"Many deviants strongly criticized the sharing features as facilitating art theft (Herr-Stephenson & Perkel, 2008; Perkel, 2011)."
— 2016, Brian Lee Jones, “Deviously Deviant: The Strange Tapestry that is deviantART.com”, in Barbara Guzzetti, Mellinee Lesley, editors, Handbook of Research on the Societal Impact of Digital Media (Advances in Media, Entertainment, and the Arts), Information Science Reference, →ISBN, page 390:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
The therapist worked with a ____ teenager who frequently broke curfew.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
Sami had ____ thoughts.