Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Diversion |
DiversionNoun1. An activity that diverts or amuses or stimulates. 2. A turning aside (of your course or attention or concern): "a diversion from the main highway"; "a digression into irrelevant details"; "a deflection from his goal". 3. An attack calculated to draw enemy defense away from the point of the principal attack. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "diversion" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1258. (references) |
Etymology: Diversion \Di*ver"sion\, noun. [Compare to the French expression diversion. See Divert.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Building & Civil Engineering | An alternative route for traffic to avoid congestion, obstruction, or other hazard. Source: European Union. (references) |
Economics | Any change in the routing of a shipment once it has been received by the carrier at point of origin and prior to delivery at destination. (references) |
Environment | 1. Use of part of a stream flow as water supply. 2. A channel with a supporting ridge on the lower side constructed across a slope to divert water at a non-erosive velocity to sites where it can be used and disposed of. (references) |
Hydrologic | The taking of water from a stream or other body of water into a canal, pipe, or other conduit. (references) |
Military | 1. The act of drawing the attention and forces of an enemy from the point of the principal operation; an attack, alarm, or feint which diverts attention. See also demonstration. 2. A change made in a prescribed route for operational or tactical reasons. Except in the case of aircraft, a diversion order will not constitute a change of destination. 3. In naval mine warfare, a route or channel bypassing a dangerous area. A diversion may connect one channel to another or it may branch from a channel and rejoin it on the other side of the danger. 4. In air traffic control, the act of proceeding to an aerodrome other than one at which a landing was intended. See also alternate aerodrome. (references) |
Military & Defense | In naval mine warfare, a route or channel bypassing a dangerous area. A diversion may connect one channel to another or it may branch from a channel and rejoin it on the other side of the danger. Source: European Union. (references) |
| The act of drawing the attention and forces of an enemy from the point of the principal operation; an attack; alarm, or feint which diverts attention. Source: European Union. (references) | |
Shipping | A change made either in the route of a shipment in transit (see Reconsignment) or of the entire ship. (references) |
Transportation | A signed route to avoid temporary obstruction, road closure, etc. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
Synonyms: DiversionSynonyms: deflection (n), deflexion (n), deviation (n), digression (n), diversionary attack (n), recreation (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Amusement | Noun: amusement, entertainment, recreation, fun, game, fun and games; diversion, divertissement; reaction, solace; pastime, passetemps, sport; labor of love; pleasure. |
Change | Noun: change, alteration, mutation, permutation, variation, modification, modulation, inflexion, mood, qualification, innovation, metastasis, deviation, turn, evolution, revolution; diversion; break. |
Deviation | Diversion, digression, depart from, aberration; divergence; zigzag; detour; (circuit); divagation. |
Refuge | Create a diversion. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | I'm going to use this steam pipe like an old-fashioned muzzle loader scatter a few stones create a diversion. (MacGyver; writing credit: John Gorrie) What we need is a diversion. I say Zoe gets naked (Firefly; writing credit: John Sullivan) But I will need a diversion, so I can get back to Bloomberg's room and try to talk to him. (The Rockford Files; writing credit: Rahel Fabian; Moshé Mizrahi) | |
Lyrics | He was drinking for diversion (RAISED ON ROBBERY; performing artist: Joni Mitchell) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Diversion (1980) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Periodicals |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | A diversion - a sailing party on the ship motor sailer. Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |  | Bayou Lamoque water diversion structure. Credit: America's Coastlines. |
 | Eskimo diversion - flying high above the shore. Credit: Paths Less Taken - NOAA at the Ends of the Earth. |  | Acid diversion in the Sacramento River at Redding, CA. The fish ladders at the ends are dammed. Credit: NOAA Restoration Center. |
 | Broad-based terrace is designed as a diversion terrace to divert runoff away from the cornfield below. Credit: Lynn Betts. |  | Farmstead diversion in Grand Traverse County, Michigan. Credit: Lynn Betts. |
 | Ranchers in the Salmon Model Watershed have combined several irrigation canals into one with a permanent diversion structure and new fish screen to help restore the Salmon River to its former status as prime salmon habitat. Credit: Joel McNee. |  | Close up of permanent diversion structure and fish screen installed on the Salmon River as part of salmon recovery work in the Salmon Model Watershed. Credit: Joel McNee. |
 | Snow retention diversion trenchBoise FrontFour Rivers Field OfficeLSRDLower Snake River District. Credit: Unknown. |  | Scenics and recreationSnake RiverGreat Feeder Diversion DamUSRDUpper Snake River District. Credit: Karen Wattenmaker. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | A sign in short, if no diversion arises, of some prodigious and speedy outburst |
Gulliver's Travels | Swift, Jonathan | Her Majesty used to put a bit of meat upon one of my dishes, out of which I carved for myself, and her diversion was to see me eat in miniature |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Bladder replacement with continent diversion can also be offered to the cystectomy patient. (references) | |
Pharmacists can help prevent prescription fraud or diversion by looking for false or altered prescription forms. (references) | ||
A number of criminal justice alternatives to incarceration have been tried with offenders who have drug disorders, including limited diversion programs, pretrial release conditional on entry into treatment, and conditional probation with sanctions. (references) | ||
Civil Liberties | Kuwait | The Government intensified its supervision of all charity groups in the latter part of the year, as part of its effort to prevent any diversion of funds to terrorists and announced that unlicensed charities would be closed in 2002. (references) |
Economic History | Mali | Due to drought and diversion of river water for agriculture, fish production has steadily declined since the early 1980s. (references) |
Djibouti | During the civil war (1991-94), there was a significant diversion of government budgetary resources from developmental and social services to military needs. (references) | |
Human Rights | Equatorial Guinea | Since 1999 the Minister of Justice and a Special Commission on Corruption have been investigating judicial corruption, in particular, the diversion of $7 million (5.25 billion CFA francs) from judicial budgets. (references) |
Honduras | Over the past 7 years, the Public Ministry has taken steps to investigate and charge not only military officers for human rights violations, but also recently retired heads of the armed forces for corruption, illicit enrichment, and white collar crimes, as well as ranking officials of the two previous governments for abuses of power, fraud, and diversion of public funds and resources. (references) | |
Political Economy | Sudan | There were credible reports of SPLA taxation and occasional diversion of relief supplies. (references) |
Political Rights | Mexico | In its decision, the TEPJF cited inequitable local media coverage, diversion of funds for the election for the PRI candidate, and the blocking or miscounting of opposition votes. (references) |
Trade | Switzerland | In certain cases, where there is a high likelihood of diversion of goods to WMD or missile uses, the Government of Switzerland applies the "catch-all" provisions of its export control law to deny export of goods not specifically included on any export control list. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
John F. Kennedy | 1961-1963 | This applies to the military confrontation between the Warsaw Pact and NATO countries as well as to other situations in other parts of the world where tensions lead to the wasteful diversion of resources to weapons of war. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Diversion" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 99.63% of the time. "Diversion" is used about 543 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 99.63% | 541 | 11,416 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.37% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 543 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "diversion": Biliopancreatic Diversion ♦ call diversion ♦ call diversion may occur indicator ♦ create a diversion ♦ diversion aerodrome ♦ diversion attack ♦ diversion channel ♦ diversion dam ♦ diversion dike ♦ diversion fencing ♦ diversion indicator ♦ diversion structure ♦ diversion structures ♦ diversion tube ♦ diversion weir ♦ diversion work ♦ diversion works ♦ incoming call diversion ♦ line diversion ♦ overflow diversion dam ♦ reference diversion point ♦ temporary diversion ♦ Urinary Diversion. Additional references. | |
| Hypenated Usage | |
Ending with "diversion": tax-diversion. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "diversion"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | ontspanning (distraction). (various references) | |
Albanian | diversion (sabotage), devijim (deflection, deviation, digression, dip, ramp, shunt), tërheqje e vëmendjes, shmangie (aberration, avoidance, declination, deflection, deflexion, departure, deviation, divergence, divergency, elusion, evasion, fencing, forbear, forbearance, jink, Miss, Parry, sidestep, swerve), kalim kohe (pastime), argëtim (amusement, cabaret, dissipation, distraction, divertissement, entertainment, fun, jamboree, merriment, merrymaking, pastime, ploy, razzle-dazzle, recreation, relaxation, revel, rollick, sport, sporting, spree, tittup), çlodhje (ease, recreation, recuperation, refreshment, relaxation, reposal, repose, rest). (various references) | |
Arabic | لهو (amusement, distraction, festivity, fun, lark, pastime, sport), تحويل (conversion, endorsement, indorsement, processing, realization, rectification, reducing, reduction, relocate, revulsion, transference, transformation, transmutation, version), تسلية (amusement, dissipation, distraction, entertainment, pastime, play, rec, recreation, relaxation, resource, sport), الهجوم المضلل, إنحراف (aberration, cant, declination, deflection, deflexion, deformity, departure, depravity, deviation, deviousness, divergence, drift, excursion, immorality, inclination, list, obliqueness, obliquity, perversion, perversity, sheer, sidetrack, swerve, tangency, twist). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | отклоняване (abduction, aberration, divagation), отклонение (aberration, bias, declination, deflection, deflexion, derivation, detour, deviation, digression, divergence, divergency, drift, excursion, inflection, inflexion, lapse, ramification, shunt, swerve, turnout, variation), отвеждане (conduction, outlet), отвличане на вниманието, отмора (recreation, relaxation, reprieve, respite, rest), диверсия (red herring, sabotage). (various references) | |
Chinese | 牵制 (Divert, Diverted, Diverting), 消遣 (amusement, pastime). (various references) | |
Czech | zábava (amusement, delectation, distraction, entertainment, festivity, fun, kick, occupation, pastime, ploy, pursuit, recreation, sport, treat), odchýlení, odboèka (branch, digression, excursion, turnoff), objížïka (detour, round), kratochvíle (amusement, kill time, pastime, resource). (various references) | |
Danish | rekreation (distraction, recuperation). (various references) | |
Dutch | afleidingsmanoeuvre (red herring, smoke screen). (various references) | |
Esperanto | distro (distraction), distrado (distraction), distraĵo (distraction), deturna manovro (red herring, smoke screen). (various references) | |
Faeroese | tíðarstytting (distraction), skemtan (distraction). (various references) | |
Farsi | تفریح (Gust, Jaunt, Pastime, Play, Recreation), سرگرمی (Avocation, Fun, Game, Hobby, Hobbyhorse, Pastime, Recreation, Sport, Toy), عمل پی گم کردن , انحراف ازجهتی . (various references) | |
Finnish | viihdytys (amusement), viihdyke, kiertotie (circuitous route, detour), huvitus (amusement, entertainment, pleasure), hauskutus (amusement, entertainment). (various references) | |
French | diversion (distraction), distraction (distraction), déviation (distortion), amusement (distraction). (various references) | |
Frisian | ferdivedaasje (distraction). (various references) | |
German | umleitung (detour, redirecting, redirection). (various references) | |
Greek | εκτροπή (aberrance, aberration, deflection, deviousness, outrage), διασκέδαση (amusement, divertissement, enjoyment, entertainment, frolic, fun, jollification, junketing, lark, merriment, merrymaking, party, pastime, recreation, shindig, sport). (various references) | |
Hebrew | פעולת "סח", "טי" (bending, bias, declension, inclination, tilt), "סחת ""עת (distraction), "סח" (distraction, removal), "סח (deflection, deviation, distraction, removal, turning aside), סיט" (deflection, digression), סטי" (aberration, bias, deflection, deviation, digression, divagation, perversion, swerve). (various references) | |
Hungarian | elterelés (deflection, distraction, diverting), eltérítés (avocation, diverting). (various references) | |
Indonesian | pengalihan (transfer of), hiburan (amusement, entertainment, recreation). (various references) | |
Irish | spóirt. (various references) | |
Italian | deviazione (aberration, deflection, departure, detour, deviation, offset, shunt, swerve), diversione (distaction, distraction), dirottamento (deviation, hijacking, skyjacking). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 遊び事 (game, pastime, recreation), 転" (putting something to another use), 牽制 (check, constraint, feint, restraint, screen), 手遊び (gambling, play, plaything), 慰め (comfort, consolation), 憂晴し (distraction), 憂さ晴らし (distraction), 流" (misappropriation), 気慰み , 気散じ (recreation, relaxation), 気保養 (change of pace), 愉しみ (amusement, enjoyment, hobby, pleasure), 心遣り (recreation, thoughtfulness). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | たのしみ (amusement, enjoyment, hobby, pleasure), きなぐさみ, なぐさめ (comfort, consolation), きさ"じ (recreation, relaxation), きほよう (change of pace), うさばらし (distraction), ""ろやり (recreation, thoughtfulness), りゅうよう (misappropriation), あそび"と (game, pastime, recreation), け"せい (check, constitutional government, constraint, feint, influence, power, prefectural strengths, restraint, screen), てすさび, て"よう (putting something to another use). (various references) | |
Korean | 기분 환 (Diverting). (various references) | |
Manx | cleayney (attract, bank, circumvent, decoy, deviate, dispose, distort, distortion, divert, draw off, incline, induce, influence, inveigle, list, penchant, persuasion, perversion, predilection, predispose, recede, seduce, stoop, tend, tend as garden, trend, vamp, veer), ceau traa (hobby). (various references) | |
Norwegian | omkjøring, avledning, adspredelse. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | iversionday.(various references) | |
Portuguese | diversão (dissipation, divertissement, entertainment, excursion, fun, gaiety, game, jamboree, jollity, merriment, merry-making, pastime, play, recreation, revel, spoof, sport, spree). (various references) | |
Romanian | divertisment (afterpiece, amusement, entertainment, resource), diversiune (avocation, sabotage), distracţie (absence-mindedness, amusement, dalliance, distraction, do, drollery, entertainment, frolic, fun, jest, jocularity, jollity, merriment, merry making, pastime, recreation, revel, skittle, sport, sporting), deviere (aberration, abnormality, deflection, deflexion, departure from, obliquity, swerve, warp), delectare (amusement, delight, enjoyment, entertainment, feast, fun, pleasure), petrecere (amusement, at home, bacchanalia, blow out, bout, carnival, carousal, conviviality, do, entertainment, feast, festival, festivity, fling, frolic, gaiety, game, garden party, jamboree, jollity, junket, merry making, party, spree), amuzament (amusement, dalliance, distraction, entertainment, jest, jocularity, pastime, picnic, recreation), agrement (agreement, amusement, assent, consent, gratification, pleasure, recreation, resource, sport). (various references) | |
Russian | отклонение (aberration, change, declension, deflection, departure, derivation, deviation, digression, divagation, divergence, divergency, error, excursion, inclination, lead, overshoot, rejection, run-away, variation). (various references) | |
Scottish | sùgradh (mirth, play), mire (frolic; transport of rage, pastime, playing). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | diverzija (red herring), razonoda (amusement, avocation, dalliance, divertissement, leisure, pastime, recreation, relaxation), razbibriga (pastime), odvraćanje pažnje, odvlačući pažnju napad. (various references) | |
Spanish | diversión (amusement, avocation, entertainment, fun, play, relaxation, tease), distracción (absence of mind, absentmindedness, abstraction, amusement, avocation, debauch, distraction, vagueness), desviación (aberrance, aberration, bypass, deflection, departure, detour, deviation, deviousness, sheer, swerve). (various references) | |
Swedish | avledande, avkoppling (distraction, relaxation). (various references) | |
Thai | การเบี่ยงเบน (deviation). (various references) | |
Turkish | dikkatini dağıtma, yanıltma, saptırma (distortion, perversion, vitiation), oyalama (delayed, distraction, stall), ilgisini başka tarafa çekme, eğlence (amusement, bash, beano, blow out, carnival, conviviality, distraction, entertainment, festivity, fete, frolic, fun, gag, gaiety, high jinks, jamboree, jollification, jolliness, jollity, merriment, merrymaking, party, pastime, play, plaything, racket, recreation, recreational, rejoicing, relaxation, revel, saturnalia, setout, sport), şaşırtma (confusing, dislocation, misleading, mystification). (various references) | |
Turkmen | яykgynзylyk.Turkmen/English Dictionary 85. (various references) | |
Ukrainian | розвага (beguilement, disport, distraction, divertissement, do, entertainment, fun, pastime, play), відступ (backdown, backing, flinch, retreat), відхилення (aberration, challenge, declension, declination, denial, departure, deviation, digression, divagation, divergence, divergency, excursus, incurvation, negative, rejection, swerve), відвернення (debarment, prevention). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | trò tiêu khiển (kill-time), trò giải trí (amusement, distraction), sự trệch đi sự l m lãng trí, sự tiêu khiển (beguilement, distraction, entertainment), sự l m trệch đi, điều l m lãng trí sự giải trí. (various references) | |
Welsh | difyrrwch (amusement, fun). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "diversion": diversionary, diversionist, diversionists, diversions. (additional references) | |
| |
"Diversion" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: daversion, devensian, deversion, diversi, diversional, divorzio, Dyfeisio, ivesian. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "diversion" (pronounced dīver"zhun or diver"zhun) |
| 5 | -v er" zh u n | aversion, conversion, inversion, perversion, reversion, subversion, version. |
| 4 | -er" zh u n | aspersion, dispersion, excursion, immersion, incursion, submersion. |
| 3 | -zh u n | abrasion, allusion, circumcision, cohesion, collision, collusion, conclusion, confusion, contusion, corrosion, decision, delusion, derision, diffusion, disillusion, division, envision, equation, erosion, evasion, excision, exclusion, explosion, extrusion, fusion, illusion, implosion, incision, inclusion, indecision, infusion, intrusion, invasion, lesion, misprision, occasion, occlusion, persuasion, precision, preclusion, profusion, provision, recision, rescission, revision, seclusion, suasion, subdivision, supervision, television, transfusion, vision. |
| 6 | -i v er" zh u n | reversion. |
| 5 | -v er" zh u n | aversion, conversion, inversion, perversion, subversion, version. |
| 4 | -er" zh u n | aspersion, dispersion, excursion, immersion, incursion, submersion. |
| 3 | -zh u n | abrasion, allusion, circumcision, cohesion, collision, collusion, conclusion, confusion, contusion, corrosion, decision, delusion, derision, diffusion, disillusion, division, envision, equation, erosion, evasion, excision, exclusion, explosion, extrusion, fusion, illusion, implosion, incision, inclusion, indecision, infusion, intrusion, invasion, lesion, misprision, occasion, occlusion, persuasion, precision, preclusion, profusion, provision, recision, rescission, revision, seclusion, suasion, subdivision, supervision, television, transfusion, vision. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "d-e-i-i-n-o-r-s-v" | |
-1 letter: derision, diviners, ironside, resinoid, revision, visioned. | |
-2 letters: devisor, devoirs, dineros, diviner, divines, divisor, indorse, insider, iodines, ionised, ironies, ivories, noisier, ordines, renvois, rosined, sordine, sordini, vendors, verdins, version, virions, viroids, visored, voiders. | |
-3 letters: devoir, devons, dinero, diners, divers, divine, donsie, dories, dovens, driven, drives, drones, droves, envois, indies, indris, inside, iodine, iodins, iodise. | |
| Words containing the letters "d-e-i-i-n-o-r-s-v" | |
+1 letter: diversions, redivision. | |
+2 letters: derivations, discovering, previsioned, provisioned, redivisions. | |
+3 letters: deprivations, diversionary, diversionist, overstriding, redissolving. | |
+4 letters: animadversion, codiscovering, diversionists, divertimentos, improvidences, nondeliveries, nondiscursive, nondispersive, nondisruptive, overdesigning, rediscovering, reprovisioned, revalidations, subordinative. | |
+5 letters: animadversions, indiscoverable, nonderivatives, nondescriptive, nondiversified, overidentifies, radiosensitive, revolutionised, valedictorians. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Fiction 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Quotations: Speeches 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
