From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishdeviancede‧vi‧ance /ˈdiːviəns/ (also deviancy /ˈdiːviənsi/) noun [uncountable] NORMAL#when something is different, especially in a bad way, from what is considered normal sexual deviance
Examples from the Corpus
deviance• We saw too the marked trend to disavow deviance amongst the women whose personal histories are discussed in Chapter 2.• As in other forms of enforcement, deviance which has taken place once is assumed capable of repetition.• Examples have been widely attested of learners who exhibit correct performance on certain forms, and then lapse into deviance later on.• On the other hand, the gallery of types of male deviance is far more richly furnished.• We might even go so far as to say that amplification of deviance among one group rather than among another could simply be due to chance.• The question stylistics must consider is: how are these three concepts of deviance, prominence, and foregrounding interrelated?• Prompted largely by developments in psychiatry, a change occurred in the very definition of deviance. 