Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Deviating from what is considered proper or normal.
  • adjective Deviating from what is typical for a specified thing.
  • noun One that is aberrant.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Wandering; straying from the right or usual course.
  • In zoology and botany, differing in some of its characters from the group in which it is placed: said of an individual, a species, a genus, etc.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Wandering; straying from the right way.
  • adjective (Biol.) Deviating from the ordinary or natural type; exceptional; abnormal.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A person or object that deviates from what is normal in his group.
  • noun biology A group, individual, or structure that deviates from the usual or natural type, especially with an atypical chromosone number.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun one whose behavior departs substantially from the norm of a group
  • adjective markedly different from an accepted norm

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin aberrāns, aberrant-, present participle of aberrāre, to go astray; see aberration.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin aberrāns, present active participle of aberrō ("go astray; err"), from ab ("from") + errō ("to wander"). See aberr.

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Examples

  • They rely on families to actually report what they call aberrant behavior.

    CNN Transcript Dec 9, 2009 2009

  • Felipe Calderon went on Twitter to express dismay over what he called an "aberrant act of terror and barbarity."

    News - latimes.com 2011

  • It also says some civilian supervisors are also at fault for ignoring clear signs of what it called his aberrant behavior.

    NPR Topics: News 2010

  • More conspicuously aberrant is an example I read over the weekend:

    Nouns of multitude 2009

  • More conspicuously aberrant is an example I read over the weekend:

    March « 2009 « Sentence first 2009

  • This would mean that the morphological criteria on which extant supposed D. arnoldi and D. hololissa have been identified are utterly unreliable: an idea which matches suggestions that 'carapace morphology is sensitive to environmental conditions and that captivity can result in aberrant morphologies' (Palkovacs et al. 2003, p. 1409; see also Gerlach 2004b).

    Archive 2006-02-01 Darren Naish 2006

  • That suggests that the Washington Post poll, which reported a figure of 21%, was not a fluke or an "outlier," as Joe and pollster-folk like to call aberrant polls that you can't trust.

    20% of adults self-identify as Republican 2009

  • That suggests that the Washington Post poll, which reported a figure of 21%, was not a fluke or an "outlier," as Joe and pollster-folk like to call aberrant polls that you can't trust.

    20% of adults self-identify as Republican 2009

  • You (and Iain Dale) miss the truly shocking thing on the leaflet, namely the aberrant apostrophe after Simon Hughes 'name.

    The Man in the White Suit 2006

  • Species and groups of species which are called aberrant, and which may fancifully be called living fossils, will aid us in forming a picture of the ancient forms of life.

    XV. Recapitulation and Conclusion 1909

Comments

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  • As in the aberrant lifestyle I've been living lately can't continue...

    January 24, 2008

  • Some environmental hormones are believed to cause aberrant mating behavior.

    어떤 환경 호르몬�?� 변태�?�?� 성행위�?� �?�?��?� �?�기�?� 한다.

    His aberrant behaviors caused a lot of anxiety to his parents.

    그�?� 정�?�를 벗어난 행위 때문�? 부모님들�?� 걱정�?� 많�?� 하셨다.

    The incident reminded the public that old habits die hard and some wondered whether it's just the tip of the iceberg rather than the isolated action of an aberrant officer.

    �?�번 �?�분 사건�?� 구태가 사�?�지기 힘들다는 사실�?� 국민들�?게 �?�?�게 했고 �?��?�?서는 �?�번 사건�?� 비행 장�?�?� �?�출�?� 행�?��?��?�기 보다는 단지 빙산�?� �?��?�?�지 모른다고 여기고 있다.

    March 31, 2009

  • Which part is "the tip of the iceberg"?

    March 31, 2009

  • It's the top bit. Above the greenberg, bloomberg, Allan Ginsberg, jarlsberg, Strindberg and Steven Spielberg.

    March 31, 2009

  • *snort*

    March 31, 2009

  • We have nothing but dreams, and we have forgotten that seeing visions—a practice now relegated to the aberrant and uneducated—was once a more significant, interesting, and disciplined kind of dreaming.

    T.S. Eliot, "Dante"

    November 12, 2011

  • adjective: markedly different from an accepted norm

    When the financial director started screaming and throwing food at his co-workers, the police had to come in to deal with his aberrant behavior.

    October 19, 2016