I. ˈver-ē-ənt adjective
Date: 14th century
1. obsolete : variable
2. : manifesting variety, deviation, or disagreement
3. : varying usually slightly from the standard form
variant readings
variant spellings
II. noun
Date: circa 1848
: one of two or more persons or things exhibiting usually slight differences: as
a. : one that exhibits variation from a type or norm
b. : one of two or more different spellings (as labor and labour ) or pronunciations (as of economics ek-, ēk-) of the same word
c. : one of two or more words (as geographic and geographical ) or word elements (as mon- and mono- ) of essentially the same meaning differing only in the presence or absence of an affix