deviant

See also: Deviant and déviant

English

Etymology

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.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈdiː.vi.ənt/

• Audio (UK):

  (file)

Adjective

deviant (comparative more deviant, superlative most deviant)

1. Characterized by deviation from an expectation or a social standard.

   At the trial, the extent of his deviant behaviour became clear.

   • 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^[1], archived from the original on 23 April 2025:

     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.

Synonyms

• deviate

Translations

of or pertaining to a deviation

• Bulgarian: отклоняващ се (otklonjavašt se)
• Czech: deviantní, úchylný (cs) m
• Dutch: afwijkend (nl)
• Finnish: poikkeava (fi)
• French: déviant (fr) m
• German: abweichend (de), abnormal (de), pervers (de), anders (de)
• Hungarian: deviáns (hu)
• Italian: anormale (it) m, deviante (it) m
• Lakota: šikšíl
• Macedonian: девија́нтен (devijánten), на́стран (nástran)
• Romanian: deviant, deviator (ro) m or n
• Russian: девиа́нтный (ru) (deviántnyj)
• Spanish: anormal (es), disconforme (es), desconforme (es), aberrante (es), desviado (es), desviante
• Swedish: avvikande (sv)
• Turkish:

  Ottoman Turkish: آزغین (azgın), اكری (eğri)

• Ukrainian: девіа́нтний (deviántnyj)

Noun

deviant (plural deviants)

1. A person who deviates, especially from norms of social behavior.

   He was branded as a deviant and ostracized.

2. A thing, phenomenon, or trend that deviates from an expectation or pattern.

   As the graph shows, the March sales trend is the deviant.

4. (Internet) A member of the online art community DeviantArt.

   Alternative form: Deviant

   • 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:

     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).

   • 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:

     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.

   • 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:

     Our data stem from these DD’s and galleries of the corresponding deviants and were acquired directly from dA Headquarters.

   • 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:

     Many deviants strongly criticized the sharing features as facilitating art theft (Herr-Stephenson & Perkel, 2008; Perkel, 2011).

   • 2017 February 24, Natt Garun, “Wix has acquired DeviantArt, which may let artists license their work for the site builder”, in The Verge‎^[2], archived from the original on 29 August 2025:

     “Deviants continue to own their own works,” [Angelo] Sotira wrote. “In the future, there's a possibility Wix might provide opportunities for you to license your work — only if you want to — to more people around the world.”

Synonyms

• (person who deviates): heteroclite, nonconformist; see also Thesaurus:maverick
• (thing that deviates): abnormality, irregularity, outlier; see also Thesaurus:anomaly

Translations

person who deviates

• Czech: deviant (cs) m
• Danish: afviger c
• Dutch: afwijkeling m, afvallige (nl)
• Finnish: poikkeava (fi)
• French: déviant (fr) m
• German: Abweichler (de) m, Abnormaler m, Perverser (de) m, Querulant (de) m, Andersdenker m
• Italian: pervertito (it), anormale (it) m
• Polish: dewiant (pl) m
• Spanish: anormal (es) m or f, desconforme (es) m or f, desviado (es) m, disconforme (es) m or f, desviante m or f
• Swedish: avvikare (sv) c
• Ukrainian: збо́ченець m (zbóčenecʹ), збо́ченка f (zbóčenka)

thing that deviates

• Bulgarian: отклонение (bg) n (otklonenie)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 異常物 / 异常物 (ji⁶ soeng⁴ mat⁶)

• Dutch: afwijkeling m
• Finnish: poikkeus (fi)
• German: Perversität (de) f
• Italian: inusuale (it) m, anormale (it) m, insolito (it) m, atipico (it) m
• Japanese: 異常物 (ijōbutsu)
• Macedonian: отстапу́вање n (otstapúvanje)
• Turkish: aykırı (tr) sg

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Romanian: ^{(please verify)} deviat

Derived terms

• deviantization
• deviantize
• nondeviant
• phenodeviant

See also

Not to be confused with defiant or devious.

References

• Random House Webster’s Unabridged Electronic Dictionary, 1987-1996.

Anagrams

• nivated

Czech

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin devians.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈdɛvɪjant]
• Hyphenation: de‧vi‧ant

Noun

deviant m anim (female equivalent deviantka)

1. deviant

Declension

Declension of deviant (hard masculine animate)

	singular	plural
nominative	deviant	devianti
genitive	devianta	deviantů
dative	deviantovi, deviantu	deviantům
accusative	devianta	devianty
vocative	deviante	devianti
locative	deviantovi, deviantu	deviantech
instrumental	deviantem	devianty

Related terms

• deviace
• deviantní

Further reading

• “deviant”, in Příruční slovník jazyka českého (in Czech), 1935–1957
• “deviant”, in Slovník spisovného jazyka českého (in Czech), 1960–1971, 1989

German

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin devians.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [deˈvi̯ant]
• Hyphenation: de‧vi‧ant

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

Adjective

deviant (strong nominative masculine singular devianter, comparative devianter, superlative am deviantesten)

1. (sociology, psychology) deviant

Declension

Positive forms of deviant number & gender singular plural masculine feminine neuter predicative er ist deviant sie ist deviant es ist deviant sie sind deviant strong declension (without article) nominative devianter deviante deviantes deviante genitive devianten devianter devianten devianter dative deviantem devianter deviantem devianten accusative devianten deviante deviantes deviante weak declension (with definite article) nominative der deviante die deviante das deviante die devianten genitive des devianten der devianten des devianten der devianten dative dem devianten der devianten dem devianten den devianten accusative den devianten die deviante das deviante die devianten mixed declension (with indefinite article) nominative ein devianter eine deviante ein deviantes (keine) devianten genitive eines devianten einer devianten eines devianten (keiner) devianten dative einem devianten einer devianten einem devianten (keinen) devianten accusative einen devianten eine deviante ein deviantes (keine) devianten Comparative forms of deviant number & gender singular plural masculine feminine neuter predicative er ist devianter sie ist devianter es ist devianter sie sind devianter strong declension (without article) nominative devianterer deviantere devianteres deviantere genitive devianteren devianterer devianteren devianterer dative devianterem devianterer devianterem devianteren accusative devianteren deviantere devianteres deviantere weak declension (with definite article) nominative der deviantere die deviantere das deviantere die devianteren genitive des devianteren der devianteren des devianteren der devianteren dative dem devianteren der devianteren dem devianteren den devianteren accusative den devianteren die deviantere das deviantere die devianteren mixed declension (with indefinite article) nominative ein devianterer eine deviantere ein devianteres (keine) devianteren genitive eines devianteren einer devianteren eines devianteren (keiner) devianteren dative einem devianteren einer devianteren einem devianteren (keinen) devianteren accusative einen devianteren eine deviantere ein devianteres (keine) devianteren Superlative forms of deviant number & gender singular plural masculine feminine neuter predicative er ist am deviantesten sie ist am deviantesten es ist am deviantesten sie sind am deviantesten strong declension (without article) nominative deviantester devianteste deviantestes devianteste genitive deviantesten deviantester deviantesten deviantester dative deviantestem deviantester deviantestem deviantesten accusative deviantesten devianteste deviantestes devianteste weak declension (with definite article) nominative der devianteste die devianteste das devianteste die deviantesten genitive des deviantesten der deviantesten des deviantesten der deviantesten dative dem deviantesten der deviantesten dem deviantesten den deviantesten accusative den deviantesten die devianteste das devianteste die deviantesten mixed declension (with indefinite article) nominative ein deviantester eine devianteste ein deviantestes (keine) deviantesten genitive eines deviantesten einer deviantesten eines deviantesten (keiner) deviantesten dative einem deviantesten einer deviantesten einem deviantesten (keinen) deviantesten accusative einen deviantesten eine devianteste ein deviantestes (keine) deviantesten

Further reading

• “deviant” in Duden online
• “deviant”, in Digitales Wörterbuch der deutschen Sprache‎^[3] (in German)

Latin

Verb

dēviant

1. third-person plural present active indicative of dēviō

Romanian

Etymology

Borrowed from French déviant.

Adjective

deviant m or n (feminine singular deviantă, masculine plural devianți, feminine/neuter plural deviante)

1. deviant

Declension

Declension of deviant

		singular			plural
		masculine	neuter	feminine	masculine	neuter	feminine
nominative- accusative	indefinite	deviant		deviantă	devianți	deviante
	definite	deviantul		devianta	devianții	deviantele
genitive- dative	indefinite	deviant		deviante	devianți	deviante
	definite	deviantului		deviantei	devianților	deviantelor