deviant

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.

Once a slur that implied homosexuality was shamefully deviant, “queer” was “reclaimed” in the 1980s by gay activists as a synonym for “gay.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 2, 2026

The cases of what the GSK report from 2003 described as "deviant behaviour" involved two men who were prescribed Ropinirole for Parkinson's disease.

From BBC • Mar. 11, 2025

Dio, meanwhile, balked at the participation of both noble and enslaved gladiatrices in Emperor Nero’s deviant games.

From Salon • Nov. 26, 2024

That gave people an excuse to start pulling the masks down and indulging in the deviant behaviors often celebrated by drill rappers.

From Washington Times • Oct. 10, 2023

None of these is new, but the relative flourishing of the market of vagueness and ambiguity, reflective of a deviant functioning of language, is.

From The Civilization of Illiteracy by Nadin, Mihai