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

The current variant, H3N2 subclade K, appears similar to last year’s strain and is included in this year’s vaccine, reducing concern about a major mismatch between the vaccine and the flu strain, Chin-Hong said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 8, 2026

The last known rabid raccoon in Los Angeles County was detected in 1973, when a skunk variant of rabies was still present in the area.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 6, 2026

"As far as I'm aware this is the first known case of this variant, the T2, ejecting pilots out of it," he said, adding that the safety record for these jets is "obviously very good".

From BBC ● Sep. 23, 2026

Manipulating gene expression allowed the researchers to test cause and effect rather than simply observe that a genetic variant happened to occur in AnWj negative people.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 19, 2026

Like other grasses, teosinte shatters, but there is no known nonshattering variant.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

Like hands, all amino acids exist as two mirrored variants, but only one of them is found in the proteins in the body's cells.

From Barron's ● Oct. 7, 2026

It is sold in one color, mint green, and comes in two variants.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2026

The Torcal will sit at the more affordable end of Bentley’s product portfolio, similar to the Bentayga, a larger SUV named after another Spanish mountain range that comes in combustion-engine and hybrid variants.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 23, 2026

During the COVID-19 pandemic, researchers could follow individual variants in remarkable detail because genome sequences were usually linked to precise dates.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026

Imagine a population of organisms with gene variants that are capable of interbreeding.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

Related Words

• modification
• variation