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

• variants
  plural

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

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• variants
  plural

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

See Examples For:

variant variants

Boeing gained 1.6% after its 737 MAX 7, the smallest jet in its narrow-body family, finally won FAA certification after years of delays following two fatal crashes of a larger variant.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026

The result offers an early indication that at least part of APOE2's protective effect may be transferable rather than being limited to people born with the gene variant.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 24, 2026

In June, Intel said that its 18A-P variant node is in risk production, meaning the chip-manufacturing process has matured and can begin initial production.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 22, 2026

Archer plans to announce the first customers for the commercial variant later this week, the company said in a release.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 21, 2026

Each variant of fungus was a medicine—a potent cure for anything from itchy paws to gut worms—and apparently Nine had made quite the name for himself selling them to the animals of Fernlight Forest.

From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman

Lower-price R2 variants are also coming later this year and next year.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026

Sherry House, Ford’s finance chief, said buyers are gravitating to larger off-road SUV and truck variants, which accounted for nearly a quarter of the company’s U.S. sales in the second quarter.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 28, 2026

However, some research suggests that severe population bottlenecks may accelerate the development of structural variants.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 26, 2026

Taken together, structural variants alter nearly eight times more of the genome than changes involving single base pairs.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 26, 2026

Darwin was unsure how these variants were generated, another fact to which we will return in subsequent pages.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Related Words

• modification
• variation