Meanings
nounvariationist (plural variationists)
plural variationists
- human sciencesA sociolinguist who studies systematic patterns of variation of linguistic forms.
adjectivevariationist (not comparable)
- not comparablehuman sciencesFocused on systematic patterns of variation of linguistic forms.
The central ideas of variationist sociolinguistics are that an understanding of language requires an understanding of variable as well as categorical processes, and that the variation witnessed at all levels of language is not random.
2013, Robert Bayley, “Variationist sociolinguistics”, in Robert Bayley, Richard Cameron, Ceil Lucas, editors, The Oxford Handbook of Sociolinguistics, Oxford: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 11
Origin
Translations
French variationniste
- variationnistefocused on systematic patterns of linguistic variation
Cite this entry
APA
variationist. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/variationist
MLA
“variationist.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/variationist. Accessed November 2, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “variationist,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/variationist.
Source: variationist on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.