Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Differing from others of the same kind or from a standard.
- adjective Having or exhibiting variation; varying.
- noun Something that differs from others of the same kind or from a standard, as a different spelling or pronunciation of a word.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun In biology, a term introduced by Barrande to express a departure from the type of a species showing contemporaneous secondary modification of form and surface features, and contrasted with the variety, in which the principal characters of the species are retained accompanied by departures in one or more primary modifications. The distinction is obscure and has not been generally adopted.
- Different; diverse; having a different form or character: as, a variant form or spelling of a word.
- Variable; varying; changing; inconstant.
- Unsettled; restless.
- noun Something that is substantially the same, though in a different form; in ctym., a variant form or spelling of the same original word; in lit, a different reading or spelling.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Varying in form, character, or the like; variable; different; diverse.
- adjective obsolete Changeable; changing; fickle.
- noun Something which differs in form from another thing, though really the same
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Showing
variety ,diverse . - adjective Showing
deviation ordisagreement . - adjective obsolete
Variable . - noun Something that is slightly different from a
type ornorm . - noun genetics A different
sequence of agene (locus ). - noun computing A
variable that can hold any of various unrelateddata types .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a variable quantity that is random
- noun something a little different from others of the same type
- adjective exhibiting variation and change
- adjective differing from a norm or standard
- noun (biology) a group of organisms within a species that differ in trivial ways from similar groups
- noun an event that departs from expectations
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
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Examples
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The term variant has been used loosely; other related terminology used is aliasing, sameness, and so forth.
ICANN blog Tina Dam 2010
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Jessica, that thought about the translation of the subjunctive to be more remote than the habria variant is interesting, especially given the number of times in English we might say “could” or “might” in these situations.
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A fairly common poker variant is to have the Ace be high and low, meaning it can be “better” (higher) in value than the King (as normal), and simultaneously lower than 2.
Best Poker Hands – For Basic Poker & Most Game Variants | Poker Hands 2009
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There are also single volume editions such as Shorter Christian Prayer (which only contains Lauds and Vespers) or Christian Prayer which includes more of the hours, but in a more inexpensive, single volume edition -- another similar variant is this edition of Christian Prayer (published by Paulist Press) which is better laid out for recitation in my estimation.
More on the Divine Office: Private Recitation by the Laity 2009
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Yet, socialism, particulalry its Marxist variant is an ideology that emphasizes the leading role of the working class or dictatorship of the proletariat.
The Volokh Conspiracy » Competing Explanations for the Oppressive Nature of Socialism 2010
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Even older variants, like the Ultimate Spider-Man #1 white variant is worth like three times the price of the standard cover coming in at about $300 a pop.
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It turns out that the government gamed the sales figures; counting each drivetrain variant under the same model separately.
Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » Wow, Who Would Have Predicted This? 2009
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For every 10 copies of Red Sonja: Wrath of the Gods #1 ordered, retailers will receive a limited edition virgin variant cover signed by writer Luke Lieberman at no extra cost.
Red Sonja takes on Loki this February | Major Spoilers - Comic Book Reviews and News 2009
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Even something like the Thunderbolts #128 Headsman variant is getting $35 in some places.
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Next, this variant is easily relatable to “no end of”; there is no “to no end of”.
Prescriptivists amaze me (to) no end « Motivated Grammar 2009
reesetee commented on the word variant
A copy of a book that varies in some way from the ideal copy. Can refer to binding color, illustrations, and so on.
February 22, 2007