DIVERGENCE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does divergence mean? 

• DIVERGENCE (noun)
  The noun DIVERGENCE has 4 senses:

1. the act of moving away in different direction from a common point

2. a variation that deviates from the standard or norm

3. an infinite series that has no limit

4. a difference between conflicting facts or claims or opinions

  Familiarity information: DIVERGENCE used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• DIVERGENCE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of moving away in different direction from a common point

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

divergence; divergency

Context example:

an angle is formed by the divergence of two straight lines

Hypernyms ("divergence" is a kind of...):

separation (the act of dividing or disconnecting)

Derivation:

diverge (move or draw apart)

divergent (tending to move apart in different directions)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A variation that deviates from the standard or norm

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural events

Synonyms:

departure; deviation; difference; divergence

Context example:

the deviation from the mean

Hypernyms ("divergence" is a kind of...):

fluctuation; variation (an instance of change; the rate or magnitude of change)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "divergence"):

discrepancy; variance; variant (an event that departs from expectations)

driftage (the deviation (by a vessel or aircraft) from its intended course due to drifting)

flection; flexion; inflection (deviation from a straight or normal course)

Derivation:

diverge (be at variance with; be out of line with)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An infinite series that has no limit

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

divergence; divergency

Hypernyms ("divergence" is a kind of...):

series ((mathematics) the sum of a finite or infinite sequence of expressions)

Antonym:

convergence (the approach of an infinite series to a finite limit)

Derivation:

diverge (have no limits as a mathematical series)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A difference between conflicting facts or claims or opinions

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

disagreement; discrepancy; divergence; variance

Context example:

a growing divergence of opinion

Hypernyms ("divergence" is a kind of...):

difference (the quality of being unlike or dissimilar)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "divergence"):

allowance; leeway; margin; tolerance (a permissible difference; allowing some freedom to move within limits)

Derivation:

divergent (diverging from another or from a standard)

 Context examples 

Amino acids 150-174 of PP32 are responsible for its tumor suppressor function and are a region of divergence with PP32R1.

(ANP32C Protein, NCI Thesaurus)

A departure or divergence from that which is considered normal.

(Disturbance, NCI Thesaurus)

Remarkably, the Ancient North Siberians people are more closely related to Europeans than Asians and seem to have migrated all the way from Western Eurasia soon after the divergence between Europeans and Asians.

(DNA from 31,000-year-old milk teeth leads to discovery of new group of ancient Siberians, University of Cambridge)

Jordan Baker instinctively avoided clever, shrewd men, and now I saw that this was because she felt safer on a plane where any divergence from a code would be thought impossible.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)