weird
(wîrd)
[Middle English werde, fate, having power to control fate, from Old English wyrd, fate.]
adjective: weird·er, weird·est.
- Of, relating to, or suggestive of the preternatural or supernatural.
- Of a strikingly odd or unusual character; strange.
- Archaic Of or relating to fate or the Fates.
noun
- Fate; destiny.
- One's assigned lot or fortune, especially when evil.
- Greek & Roman Mythology One of the Fates.
tr. & intr.v.: weird·ed, weird·ing, weirds.
- Slang To experience or cause to experience an odd, unusual, and sometimes uneasy sensation. Often used with out.
derivatives
- weird́ly
- adverb
- weird́ness
- noun
synonyms:
weird, eerie, uncanny, unearthly These adjectives refer to what is of a mysteriously strange, usually frightening nature. Weird may suggest the operation of supernatural influences, or merely the odd or unusual: “The person of the house gave a weird little laugh” (Charles Dickens) “There is a weird power in a spoken word” (Joseph Conrad) Something eerie inspires fear or uneasiness and implies a sinister influence: “At nightfall on the marshes, the thing was eerie and fantastic to behold” (Robert Louis Stevenson) Uncanny refers to what is unnatural and peculiarly unsettling: “The queer stumps … had uncanny shapes, as of monstrous creatures” (John Galsworthy) Something unearthly seems so strange and unnatural as to come from or belong to another world: “He could hear the unearthly scream of some curlew piercing the din” (Henry Kingsley)
