Deviance

//ˈdiːvɪəns// noun

noun ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    Actions or behaviors that violate formal and informal cultural norms such as laws and customs. countable, uncountable

    "Socrates was sentenced to death for his deviance."

  2. 2
    deviate behavior wordnet
  3. 3
    A person or thing that differs from the expected. countable, uncountable
  4. 4
    a state or condition markedly different from the norm wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
anomalyaberranceaberranceaberrancyaberrationabnormality

Example

More examples

"This article on religion may interest you: "The Relationship between Religion and Deviance in a Largely Irreligious Country: Findings from the 2010 China General Social Survey.""

Etymology

Borrowed from French déviance.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.