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I am making a report over different database languages. I am curious to know if there is one word for representing different forms/variants of the same ting ?

Is "dialect" okay ?

say "SQL dialects" or "SQL variants" which one is more accurate, or is there is any other word better than this ??

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    In the context of slightly different programming languages, dialect is idiomatic. However, your question doesn't say that you're asking primarily about programming languages.
    – Lawrence
    Commented May 1, 2016 at 15:03
  • I am making a report over different database languages
    – Yash Krishnan
    Commented May 1, 2016 at 15:13
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    That you should add to the question.
    – NVZ ♦
    Commented May 1, 2016 at 15:24

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In the context of programming languages, the term dialect is idiomatic. Ngram confirms that SQL dialect(s) is much more common than SQL variant(s).

A dialect of a programming language or a data exchange language is a (relatively small) variation or extension of the language that does not change its intrinsic nature. - wikipedia

Here are two examples of the use of the word dialect in this way:

  • This page lets you specify which SQL dialects are used in your project. - SQL Dialects, PhpStorm 2016.1 Help; and
  • The SQL dialect, derived from the Structured Query Language, uses human-readable expressions to define query statements. - Microsoft
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The word closest to an answer is in your question, though erroneous. It is variant

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