Definition of "variant"

variant

/ˈvɛəɹi.ənt/

adjective
comparative more variant, superlative most variant
1. Showing variety, diverse.
2. Showing deviation or disagreement.
3. (obsolete) Variable.
4. (programming) Covariant and/or contravariant.
noun
plural variants
1. Something that is slightly different from a type or norm.
2. (genetics) A different sequence of a gene (locus).
  Quotations
  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. (computing) A variable that can hold any of various unrelated data types.
4. (linguistics, lexicography) One of a set of words or other linguistic forms that conveys the same meaning or serves the same function.
  Quotations
  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