divert
Americanverb (used with object)
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diverts,
present (3rd person singular)
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diverted,
past participle, past
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diverting
present participle
verb (used without object)
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diverts,
present (3rd person singular)
-
diverted,
past participle, past
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diverting
present participle
verb
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to turn (a person or thing) aside from a course; deflect
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(tr) to entertain; amuse
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(tr) to distract the attention of
Synonym Usage
See amuse.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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diverternoun
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predivertverb (used with object)
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redivertverb (used with object)
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divertibleadjective
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divertingadjective
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divertiveadjective
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undivertedadjective
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undivertibleadjective
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divertedlyadverb
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divertinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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divertsimple
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divertssimple
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have divertedperfect
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has divertedperfect
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am divertingprogressive
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are divertingprogressive
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is divertingprogressive
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have been divertingperfect progressive
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has been divertingperfect progressive
Past
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divertedsimple
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had divertedperfect
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was divertingprogressive
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were divertingprogressive
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had been divertingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of divert
First recorded in 1400–50; late Middle English, from Latin dīvertere, from dī- di- 2 + vertere “to turn”
Explanation
To divert means to shift or turn from one thing to another. A magician might attempt to divert your attention as he shoves the rabbit into the hat. The police will divert traffic if there has been an accident that blocks the road, and it's a good idea to divert some of your income into a savings account so you don't spend it all. Are you throwing a surprise party for a friend at his house? Have a neighbor divert him for a little while if he comes home early so that you can finish getting ready. While these uses concern physically guiding something to a different location, divert can also be used to mean "distract" or "entertain." If your friend can't stop worrying about her grades, you might want to divert her with the latest school gossip.
Vocabulary lists containing divert
The Outsiders
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Unit 1: Telling Details
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Coraline
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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.
See Examples For:
Ultimately, the scandal surrounding Peltola is being used as "distractive tactics" to divert voters away from what's at stake, said surgical technologist Zara Oakley, 41.
From Barron's ● Nov. 3, 2026
Do not divert from your original or primary message, and don’t get dragged into any “if” or “but” scenarios.
From MarketWatch ● Nov. 2, 2026
"South Korea and the United States deploy decoy targets to divert torpedoes, but AI could potentially help distinguish real targets from decoys," Lim Eul-chul, a professor at Kyungnam University, told AFP.
From Barron's ● Oct. 17, 2026
His comments come on the back of a closed-door hearing with EU merger officials Thursday, who have raised concerns the transaction could divert supplies from Europe to China.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 9, 2026
If Old Chao was trying to divert her attention from his foot, he’d succeeded.
From "Typical American" by Gish Jen
It did strike me as odd, however, that “Tony” is forged on a factual alteration that diverts Tony from the kitchen far too often — the movie’s cardinal sin.
From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2026
Yet even the best projections can crumble if, say, a parent loses a high-paying job or diverts money from their own retirement account to fund a 529 plan.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 1, 2026
The food for the larder is donated by the charity FareShare, which redistributes surplus food and diverts it away from landfill.
From BBC ● Feb. 27, 2026
Williams was also told that some trading desks are reluctant to borrow from the SRF because it diverts financial resources they could otherwise devote to trading with regular clients, the people said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 24, 2025
A second road block diverts us to the ring road.
From "Without Refuge" by Jane Mitchell
A tree that wasn’t board-feet of lumber was a waste, a landscape that wasn’t plowed was a waste, a river that wasn’t diverted to irrigate was a waste.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2026
Once the fake students were enrolled, Mogambi allegedly diverted their financial aid payments to himself, keeping 30% and sending the remainder to his associates in Kenya.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026
The share of waste processed at an incinerator remained broadly the same at 82% but the amount being diverted to landfill fell by 10%.
From BBC ● Oct. 27, 2026
Hundreds of flights were cancelled or diverted because of the storms across northern Europe.
From Barron's ● Oct. 25, 2026
He diverted the waterfall straight into the giant’s face.
From "The Son of Neptune" by Rick Riordan
In 1941, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power began diverting water from streams that feed the lake, sending it to the City of Angels via its controversial aqueduct.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 29, 2026
You talk about taking the slow road to retirement, not diverting down dirt tracks leading you to the Emerald City of AI, and how it seems, well, boring and safe.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 12, 2026
A third runway would mean demolishing hundreds of homes, diverting rivers and rerouting a section of the M25 motorway through a tunnel.
From BBC ● Sep. 27, 2026
World Vision’s Gaza director, Mohammad Halabi, was arrested by Israeli police in June 2016 and convicted in 2022 for siphoning off up to $50 million and diverting it to Hamas.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 3, 2026
With no more than a brief conversation, Darwin had inserted a sluice into de Vries’s darting mind, diverting it forever.
From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
