variant
Americanadjective
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tending to change or alter; exhibiting variety or diversity; varying.
variant shades of color.
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not agreeing or conforming; differing, especially from something of the same general kind.
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not definitive, as a version of part of a text; different; alternative.
a variant reading.
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not universally accepted.
noun
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a person or thing that varies.
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a different spelling, pronunciation, or form of the same word.
“Vehemency” is a variant of “vehemence.”
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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.
adjective
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liable to or displaying variation
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differing from a standard or type
a variant spelling
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obsolete not constant; fickle
noun
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something that differs from a standard or type
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statistics another word for variate
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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.
Vocabulary lists containing variant
Stargirl
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This Week In Culture, April 26–May 2, 2020
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This Week in Words: Current Events Vocab for November 27–December 3, 2021
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Variant was founded in 2009 by the now CIO of asset manger Prevatt Capital, Jonathan Tepper, under a belief that “robust, repeatable tools work better than gurus with crystal balls.”
From MarketWatch • Mar. 5, 2026
Variant Perception said its S&P 500 “Correction Signal” has only been triggered three times since 2019.
From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 5, 2026
SARS-CoV-2 Variant Properties -- Covering 3,800 spike protein variants, this dataset links structural predictions from AlphaFold2 and ESMFold with ACE2 binding and expression data.
From Science Daily • Oct. 13, 2025
Variant creation is driven by the amount of replicating virus in existence.
From Salon • Mar. 20, 2022
Transcriber's Note Variant and obsolete spellings remain as printed.
From Catalogue of Economic Plants in the Collection of the U. S. Department of Agriculture by Saunders, William
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
