variant

adj

1. Showing variety, diverse.
2. Showing deviation or disagreement.
3. (obsolete)Variable.
4. Covariant and/or contravariant.

noun

1. Something that is slightly different from a type or norm.

   “All breeds of dog are variants of the species “Canis lupus familiaris”.”

2. A different sequence of a gene (locus).

   “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.”

3. A variable that can hold any of various unrelated data types.
4. One of a set of words or other linguistic forms that conveys the same meaning or serves the same function.

   “The word "kerosine" is a variant of “kerosene”.”

   “The "Terms" number is the total number of words and lexical phrases, including sub-headwords and other nested lexical items, but exclusive of variants.”

   “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.”