deviation
nounUK /ˌdiː.viˈeɪʃən/ · CA, US /ˌdiviˈeɪʃən/
Etymology From Middle French deviation, from Medieval Latin deviatio. Morphologically deviate + -ion.
9 senses
- 1The act of deviating; wandering off the correct or true…
- 2A departure from the correct way of acting.
- 3The state or result of having deviated; a transgression…
- 4A detour in a road or railway.
- 5A detour to one side of the originally-planned…
- 6The voluntary and unnecessary departure of a ship from…
- 7The shortest distance between the center of the target…
- 8For interval variables and ratio variables, a measure of…
- 9The signed difference between a value and its reference value.
The act of deviating; wandering off the correct or true path or road.
A departure from the correct way of acting.
- The combination of Archie Jones’s working-class, Cockney accent, Samad’s Asian-English and Clara’s Creolized Caribbean English represent socio-linguistic deviations from Standard English as the centripetal forces of language undermining any notion of a homoglossic centre to the nation’s language and culture.2007, Nick Bentley, “Re-writing Englishness: imagining the nation in Julian Barnes’s England, England and Zadie Smith’s White Teeth”, in Textual Practice, volume 21, number 3, →DOI, pages 496–7:
The state or result of having deviated; a transgression; an act of sin; an error; an offense.
- mankind’s deviation from divine will
A detour in a road or railway.
- "A rough place, my last district; sixty navvies on the Springbank deviation works, let alone eighty of these dole bugs to attend to."1938, Norman Lindsay, Age of Consent, 1st Australian edition, Sydney, N.S.W.: Ure Smith, published 1962, →OCLC, page 21:
Aeronautics, Aerospace, Aviation, Business, Engineering, Natural sciences, Physical sciences A detour to one side of the originally-planned flightpath (for instance, to avoid weather); the act of making such a detour.
- The flightcrew observed en route thunderstorms both visually and on the airplane's weather radar, so they requested and received clearance for a deviation to the left of course from the HNL Combined Center Radar Approach Control (CERAP).1992 March 18, National Transportation Safety Board, “1.1 History of the Flight”, in Aircraft Accident Report: Explosive Decompression - Loss of Cargo Door in Flight, United Airlines Flight 811, Boeing 747-122, N4713U, Honolulu, Hawaii, February 24, 1989, page 2:
The voluntary and unnecessary departure of a ship from, or delay in, the regular and usual course of the specific voyage insured, thus releasing the underwriters from their responsibility.
The shortest distance between the center of the target and the point where a projectile hits or bursts.
Absolute Deviation
Mathematics, Sciences, Statistics For interval variables and ratio variables, a measure of difference between the observed value and the mean.
Metrology The signed difference between a value and its reference value.
- Derived terms
- absolute deviation, average deviation, cyclodeviation, deviational, deviationism, deviationist, deviation ratio, exodeviation, immune deviation, immunodeviation, magnetic deviation, mean absolute deviation, mean deviation, multideviation, nondeviation, overdeviation, quartile deviation, relative deviation, sexual deviation, signed deviation, standard deviation, underdeviation