diversion

UK/daɪˈvɜː.ʃən/US/dɪˈvɝ.ʒən/

nounB2+2 meanings Common in everyday speech and writing · #4,732 of 15,258neutral

Other forms: diversions

A diversion is a route round a closed road. Follow the diversion, a diversion in place, a signed diversion.

In Britain diversions are marked with yellow signs and coloured symbols, and following one for nine miles to travel four is a national experience. It also means anything that draws attention away: create a diversion. And it means an amusement or pastime: a pleasant diversion — which is the oldest sense. Note divert, and diversionary, which is used of tactics meant to distract.

Definitions of diversion

1noundiversionA route round a closed road.B2+
“The main road was closed, so we had to follow the diversion through the village.”
2noundrawsSomething that draws attention away.B2
“While one boy created a diversion, his friend grabbed the ball from the teacher's desk.”

Also practised as

nounSomething staged to distract from the real action.

Where it comes from

Latin divertere means to turn aside — di- plus vertere, to turn. Divert, diverse and divorce all come from that turning away, and a diversion is the road version of the same move.

Latin
divertō — to divert
Medieval Latin
diversiō
Middle English
diversion
English, today
diversion

From Middle English diversion, dyversioun, from Medieval Latin diversiō, from Latin divertō (“to divert”); see divert.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

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