oddness
English
Etymology
From Middle English oddenesse; equivalent to odd + -ness.
Pronunciation
Audio (US): (file)
Noun
oddness (countable and uncountable, plural oddnesses)
- (uncountable) The state or quality of being odd.
- (countable) The result or product of being odd.
- 1714 August 15 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “WEDNESDAY, August 4, 1714”, in The Spectator, number 576; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume VI, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:
- This humour broke out at first in many little oddnesses: he had never any stated hours for his dinner, supper, or sleep; because, said he, we ought to attend the calls of nature, and not set our appetites to our meals […]
- 1857, [Thomas Hughes], Tom Brown’s School Days. […], Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Macmillan & Co., →OCLC:
- Neither was he intimate with any of the other bigger boys, who were warned off by his oddnesses, for he was a very queer fellow; […]
Synonyms
- (the state or quality of being odd): oddity, weirdness; see also Thesaurus:strangeness
Translations
the state or quality of being odd
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the result or product of being odd
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