Each week, Verywell explains a term from health, medicine, science, or technology.
How to say it:Variant
What it means: Something that is different from the standard or original.
Where it comes from: From Latin,varians,“various or variegated.”
World Health Organization
Where you might see or hear it: In the context of health and medicine, you’ve probably recently heard “variant” applied to theCOVID-19 virus. It’s also commonly used when talking about genetics, often along with the term “mutation.”
When talking about COVID or another virus like influenza, avariantapplies to a recent version of the virus that is different from the original or any previous versions. The word “strain” is also used—for example, we get yearlyflu shotsthat protect against more than one strain of the influenza virus.
In genetics, you might hear the wordvariantused to describe when something about a gene that you have is different in a way thatmight affect your health. For example, some genetic variants increase your risk of getting certain diseases while others might make you less likely to get them.
WHO Renames COVID-19 Variants Using Greek Alphabet
SourcesVerywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.What you need to know about variants. Updated November 27, 2021.Merriam-Webster.Definition of variant.
Sources
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.What you need to know about variants. Updated November 27, 2021.Merriam-Webster.Definition of variant.
Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read oureditorial processto learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.What you need to know about variants. Updated November 27, 2021.Merriam-Webster.Definition of variant.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.What you need to know about variants. Updated November 27, 2021.
Merriam-Webster.Definition of variant.
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