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deviation

American  
[dee-vee-ey-shuhn] / ˌdi viˈeɪ ʃən /

noun

  1. the act of deviating.

  2. departure from a standard or norm.

  3. Statistics. the difference between one of a set of values and some fixed value, usually the mean of the set.

  4. Navigation. the error of a magnetic compass, as that of a ship, on a given heading as a result of local magnetism.

  5. Optics.

    1. Also called deflection.  the bending of rays of light away from a straight line.

    2. angle of deviation.

  6. departure or divergence from an established dogma or ideology, especially a Communist one.

deviation British  
/ ˌdiːvɪˈeɪʃən /

noun

  1. an act or result of deviating

  2. statistics the difference between an observed value in a series of such values and their arithmetic mean

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

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
deviation Scientific  
/ dē′vē-ā′shən /

  1. The difference between one number in a set and the mean of the set.

Other Word Forms

  • deviative adjective
  • deviatory adjective
  • nondeviation noun

Etymology

Origin of deviation

First recorded in 1375–1425; late Middle English, from Middle French, from Medieval Latin dēviātiōn-, stem of dēviātiō; equivalent to deviate + -ion

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.

Each standard deviation drop in relative amplitude was linked to a 54% increase in dementia risk.

From Science Daily

Since beginning operations in 2019, the experiment has collected tritium β-decay data with unmatched precision, specifically searching for the tiny deviations expected from a sterile neutrino.

From Science Daily

That is a consumption gap of about 25 percentage points of GDP—a massive deviation from what you would expect at this stage of development.

From Barron's

He took Boyd’s gun but not his phone, a deviation from department procedure that set the course for what happened over the next few hours.

From The Wall Street Journal

The drama's story closely followed the game's, with a few deviations, and fans pointed out shot-for-shot comparisons where sequences were almost identical to their pixelated inspiration.

From BBC

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.