Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The quality or state of being peculiar.
  • noun A notable or distinctive feature or characteristic.
  • noun An eccentricity; an idiosyncrasy.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Private ownership; proprietorship; prerogative.
  • noun That which is peculiar to or characteristic of a person or thing; a special characteristic or belonging.
  • noun The quality of being peculiar; individuality.
  • noun Synonyms Characteristic, idiosyncrasy, singularity.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The quality or state of being peculiar; individuality; singularity.
  • noun That which is peculiar; a special and distinctive characteristic or habit; particularity.
  • noun obsolete Exclusive possession or right.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The quality or state of being peculiar; individuality; singularity.
  • noun That which is peculiar; a special and distinctive characteristic or habit; particularity.
  • noun Exclusive possession or right.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an odd or unusual characteristic
  • noun something unusual -- perhaps worthy of collecting
  • noun a distinguishing trait

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Temperate men are not governed in their religious researches by the pride of peculiarity nor the influence of party views, and a faithful trial ought to have been made in order to convince of error before the charge of _pride of peculiarity_, or the influence of party views, could with propriety have been made.

    A Series of Letters in Defence of Divine Revelation Hosea Ballou 1811

  • In that romantic history, the retreat of the Ten Thousand Greeks, this peculiarity is alluded to.

    Glimpses of Life and Manners in Persia 1856

  • This peculiarity is not limited to the Philomycidae and Toxicodendron radicans.

    What do philomycid slugs and poison ivy have in common? AYDIN 2009

  • That peculiarity is their own; it is their mode of expression.

    CHAPTER 12 2010

  • This peculiarity is not limited to the Philomycidae and Toxicodendron radicans.

    Archive 2009-08-01 AYDIN 2009

  • Its peculiarity is the likeness to a seaport the Desert which rolls up almost to its doors being the sea and its ships being the camels.

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • The peculiarity is also called water and grain, which gives rise to a host of double-entendres, puns, paronomasias and conceits more or less frigid.

    The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night 2006

  • And today, in Provincetown, three hours away by car from Boston, these dollhouses, these inexpensive art galleries, these fishing shacks with painted clapboard façades gnawed by salt and snow — this typically middle-class seaside resort whose other peculiarity is to have become, over time, a gay town.

    In the Footsteps of Tocqueville (Part V) Bernard-Henri L 2005

  • And today, in Provincetown, three hours away by car from Boston, these dollhouses, these inexpensive art galleries, these fishing shacks with painted clapboard façades gnawed by salt and snow — this typically middle-class seaside resort whose other peculiarity is to have become, over time, a gay town.

    In the Footsteps of Tocqueville (Part V) Bernard-Henri L 2005

  • A fundamental peculiarity is that the image elements do not influence each other while the image is being reconstructed.

    Physiology or Medicine 1979 - Press Release 1979

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