variant

comparative more variant · superlative most variant · alternative obsolete variaunt

1. Showing variety, diverse.
2. Showing deviation or disagreement.
3. obsoleteVariable.
4. computingCovariant and/or contravariant.

plural variants · alternative obsolete variaunt

1. Something that is slightly different from a type or norm.

   All breeds of dog are variants of the species “Canis lupus familiaris”.

2. biologyA different sequence of a gene (locus).

   Most train operators have reduced services with emergency timetables, as they struggle to cope with a rapid increase in staff absences due to the Omicron variant of COVID.

   2022 January 12, Paul Clifton, “Network News: Emergency timetables as absences surge due to COVID”, in RAIL, number 948, page 6

3. computingA variable that can hold any of various unrelated data types.
4. human sciencesOne of a set of words or other linguistic forms that conveys the same meaning or serves the same function.

   The word "kerosine" is a variant of “kerosene”.

   2 more examples

   The "Terms" number is the total number of words and lexical phrases, including sub-headwords and other nested lexical items, but exclusive of variants.

   2012, James Lambert, “Beyond Hobson-Jobson: A new lexicography for Indian English”, in World Englishes, page 297

   Each member of this group of two or more forms is called a variant. [...] In this case ‘-in’ and ‘-ing’ are variants of the sociolinguistic variable -ing.

   2014, Kimberly Geeslin, Avizia Yim Long, Sociolinguistics and Second Language Acquisition, page 27