divergent
- 01 C1 Advanced
becoming different or moving in different directions from a starting point.
developing or moving in different directions; increasingly different in character or form.
Simple“The two friends had divergent paths in life after they finished university.”
In context“The two political parties presented divergent visions for the country's economic future, leading to a stalemate in the negotiations.”
UsageOften used with the preposition 'from'.
Teacher's tipThis is a high-level academic word. Encourage students to use it when 'different' feels too simple for describing paths, opinions, or trends.
Antonyms - 02 C2 Proficiency
describes a list of numbers that does not get closer to a specific final value.
describing a sequence or series that does not approach a finite limit as its terms increase.
Simple“The teacher explained why a divergent series cannot be added up to a single number.”
In context“The student struggled to prove that the harmonic series is divergent despite the individual terms approaching zero.”
UsageUsed as a technical classification for sequences and series.
Teacher's tipThis is strictly for students of advanced mathematics or physics.
Antonyms - 03 C1 Advanced
describes light rays that spread out from a single point.
causing rays of light to move away from each other.
Simple“A concave lens creates a divergent beam of light.”
In context“The experiment required a divergent lens to spread the laser light across the entire surface of the sensor.”
UsageUsually precedes the noun it modifies, such as 'lens' or 'beam'.
SynonymsAntonyms
“In 2014, Marily Oppezzo and Daniel Schwartz at Stanford University found that walking increased divergent thinking – the capacity to generate multiple solutions to open-ended problems – by roughly 60 per cent.”
“Palestinian and Israeli authorities offered divergent accounts of the incident, which came as settler violence has surged across the Israeli-occupied territory.”
From Latin dis- (“apart”) + vergere (“to turn”) + the adjectival suffix -ent.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.