weird

CEFRB1

/ˈwɪə(ɹ)d/

adjective

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adjective

    Strange or unusual in a way that seems surprising.

  2. 02

    adjective

    Extra detail

    Deviating from the normal; bizarre.

Examples

  • I had a really weird dream last night.

  • People from Madrid are weird.

At a glance

Sits at B1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • /ˈwiːə(ɹ)d/

Deep Dive

adjective

Extra meanings

  1. Relating to weird fiction ("a macabre subgenre of speculative fiction").

  2. Having an unusually strange character or behaviour.

  3. Belonging, pertaining, or related to fate, destiny, or to the Fates; able to influence fate.

More examples

In context

  • Uh, now it's really weird...

  • It was quite weird to bump into all my ex-girlfriends on the same day.

  • It was weird for him to watch boys play with Barbie dolls.

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

Because the man wore a full clown costume to a formal wedding, everyone thought his behavior was very blank.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adjective

From Middle English werde, wierde, wirde, wyrede, wurde, from Old English wyrd (“fate”), from Proto-West Germanic *wurdi, from Proto-Germanic *wurdiz, from Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to turn, wind”). Cognate with Icelandic urður (“fate”). Related to Old English weorþan (“to become”); more at worth (verb). Doublet of wyrd, a reborrowing of the original sense and spelling. Obsolete by the 16th century in English, it was reintroduced by Shakespeare, who borrowed Middle Scots weird as weyward in the name of the Weyward Sisters (later respelt as Weird Sisters), meaning “Sisters of Fate”. The senses “abnormal”, “strange” etc., arising from a reinterpretatation of the Sisters' naming, are poster...