exceptional vs variant

exceptional

adj
  • Corresponding to something of lower dimension under a birational correspondence. 

  • Forming an exception; not ordinary; uncommon; rare. 

  • Better than the average; superior due to exception or rarity. 

noun
  • An exception, or something having an exceptional value 

variant

adj
  • Covariant and/or contravariant. 

  • Showing deviation or disagreement. 

  • Showing variety, diverse. 

noun
  • Something that is slightly different from a type or norm. 

  • A different sequence of a gene (locus). 

  • A variable that can hold any of various unrelated data types. 

  • One of a set of words or other linguistic forms that conveys the same meaning or serves the same function. 

How often have the words exceptional and variant occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )