variant

American  

[vair-ee-uhnt] / ˈvɛər i ənt /

adjective

1. tending to change or alter; exhibiting variety or diversity; varying.

   variant shades of color.

2. not agreeing or conforming; differing, especially from something of the same general kind.

3. not definitive, as a version of part of a text; different; alternative.

   a variant reading.

4. not universally accepted.

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noun

1. a person or thing that varies.

2. a different spelling, pronunciation, or form of the same word.

   “Vehemency” is a variant of “vehemence.”

3. Microbiology, Pathology. a form of a virus, bacterium, or other microorganism that arises from a strain of the microorganism when a mutation changes a small part of the strain’s genetic code.

variant British  

/ ˈvɛərɪənt /

adjective

1. liable to or displaying variation

2. differing from a standard or type

   a variant spelling

3. obsolete not constant; fickle

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noun

1. something that differs from a standard or type

2. statistics another word for variate

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• nonvariant
  adjective
• unvariant
  adjective

Etymology

Origin of variant

First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English variaunt(e), variant(e) “undergoing change, tending to change, changeable,” from Old French, from Latin variant-, stem of variāns, present participle of variāre “to mark or adorn with different colors”; cf. various; see -ant

Explanation

A variant is another version of something. You could say chimps and apes and gorillas are variants in the primate family. Words often have variants, spellings that vary from region to region or country to country. The British colour and the American color are variants. When a movie or TV show is remade or casts a new actor — like with the string of James Bonds — you could call those movies variants. Where there are variants, there is variety — things aren't all the same.

Example Sentences

This particular variant of the disease, Bundibugyo, is more difficult to detect than the more common Zaire variant.

From Slate • Jun. 9, 2026

Scientists initially expected participants with the PAM variant to have lower levels of GLP-1 because the hormone might be less stable without proper amidation.

From Science Daily • Jun. 5, 2026

The only group where the benefits were greater than the harms is men with a BRCA2 gene variant and a family history of breast, ovarian, pancreatic, or prostate cancer.

From BBC • May 28, 2026

"How could this have gone for four to six weeks, ... spreading while not getting the testing results that we needed to show that it was a particular variant?"

From Barron's • May 20, 2026

In short, genetic information must have been transmitted between two organisms in a purely chemical form, allowing that transition from the rough-coated to the smooth-coated variant.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Related Words

• modification
• variation