deviation — English Dictionary

Noun

1. The act of deviating; wandering off the correct or true path or road.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

2. A departure from the correct way of acting.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

   Examples

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   The combination of Archie Jones’s working-class, Cockney accent, Samad’s Asian-English and Clara’s Creolized Caribbean English represent socio-linguistic deviations from Standard English as the centripetal forces of language undermining any notion of a homoglossic centre to the nation’s language and culture.

3. The state or result of having deviated; a transgression; an act of sin; an error; an offense.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

   Examples

   mankind’s deviation from divine will

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   The principle of unity of control in industry was soon introduced, and dreams of the collective administration of factories were condemned as a syndicalist deviation.

4. A detour in a road or railway.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

   Examples

   "A rough place, my last district; sixty navvies on the Springbank deviation works, let alone eighty of these dole bugs to attend to."

5. A detour to one side of the originally-planned flightpath (for instance, to avoid weather); the act of making such a detour.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

   Examples

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   The flightcrew observed en route thunderstorms both visually and on the airplane's weather radar, so they requested and received clearance for a deviation to the left of course from the HNL Combined Center Radar Approach Control (CERAP).

6. The voluntary and unnecessary departure of a ship from, or delay in, the regular and usual course of the specific voyage insured, thus releasing the underwriters from their responsibility.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

7. The shortest distance between the center of the target and the point where a projectile hits or bursts.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

8. For interval variables and ratio variables, a measure of difference between the observed value and the mean.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

9. The signed difference between a value and its reference value.

   Usage

   • Countable
   • Uncountable

Noun

1. a variation that deviates from the standard or norm

   Synonyms

   divergencedeparturedifference

   Broader terms

   variationfluctuation

   Examples

   the deviation from the mean

2. the difference between an observed value and the expected value of a variable or function

   Broader terms

   statistic

3. the error of a compass due to local magnetic disturbances

   Broader terms

   erroneousnesserror

4. deviate behavior

   Synonyms

   deviance

   Broader terms

   abnormalityirregularity

5. a turning aside (of your course or attention or concern)

   Synonyms

   diversiondigressiondeflectiondeflexiondivagation

   Broader terms

   turnturning

   Examples

   a diversion from the main highway

   a digression into irrelevant details

   More examples (1)

   a deflection from his goal