ENGLISH
REFERENCE

deviate

v.
C1 Advanced US //ˈdiviˌeɪt// de·vi·ate Academic

v. to do something differently from the usual way or to change from a planned path.

v. to depart from an established course, standard, or principle. Often used to describe divergence from a statistical norm or a planned trajectory.


SIMPLE

The bus had to deviate from its usual route because of roadworks.

CONTEXTUAL

The researchers noticed that the experimental results began to deviate significantly from the expected values after the third hour.

COMPLEX

While the director followed the original script for most of the film, he chose to deviate from the novel's ending to provide a more hopeful conclusion for the audience.

Synonyms
Antonyms
Etymology 1

From Late Latin dēviātus, perfect passive participle of dēviō, see -ate (verb-forming suffix) for more. Compare French dévier.

Etymology 2

From a substantivation of Late Latin dēviātus, see Etymology 1 and -ate (noun-forming suffix) for more.

Etymology 3

From Late Latin dēviātus, see Etymology 1 and -ate (adjective-forming suffix) for more.

Usage

Intransitive; typically takes the preposition 'from' before the noun phrase.

Pitfall

deviate the plandeviate from the planDeviate is intransitive and requires the preposition 'from' to connect to an object.

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