Deviate

How to spell deviate

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce deviate

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does deviate mean?

1. verbTo depart from an established course, plan, standard, or expectation.

Deviate in a sentence

• The pilot had to deviate from the planned route because of a storm.

• Auditors flagged any figures that deviate from the approved budget.

Where does deviate come from?

Language of origin: Latin

This word descends from the Latin verb deviare, which meant literally 'to turn off the road'. It was built from the prefix de-, meaning 'away from', and via, the ordinary Latin word for a road or way (the same via that survives in 'viaduct' and in the phrase 'via London'). The original image is therefore wonderfully concrete: a traveller leaving the proper path and wandering off course. English took the word in during the late 1500s, at first in this literal travelling sense, and it soon broadened to cover any departure from a standard, plan, or norm of behaviour. Remembering the buried Latin via is the easiest way to keep the spelling on track, since the troublesome 'via' sits right in the middle of the word.

How the word is built

• de- (away, off)
• via (road, way)
• -ate (verb-forming suffix)