Definitions

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

  • noun The quality of being eccentric.
  • noun Deviation from the normal, expected, or established.
  • noun An example or instance of eccentric behavior.
  • noun Physics The distance between the center of an eccentric and its axis.
  • noun Mathematics The ratio of the distance of any point on a conic section from a focus to its distance from the corresponding directrix. This ratio is constant for any particular conic section.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Deviation from a center; the state of a circle with reference to its center not coinciding with that of another circle.
  • noun In geometry and astronomy, the distance between the foci of a conic divided by the transverse diameter. The eccentricity of the earth's orbit is .01677, or about .
  • noun In ancient astronomy, the distance of the center of the equant from the earth.
  • noun Departure or deviation from that which is stated, regular, or usual; oddity; whimsicalness: as, the eccentricity of a man's genius or conduct.
  • noun An eccentric action or characteristic; a striking peculiarity of character or conduct.
  • noun Also excentricity in the literal uses.

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

  • noun The state of being eccentric; deviation from the customary line of conduct; oddity.
  • noun (Math.) The ratio of the distance between the center and the focus of an ellipse or hyperbola to its semi-transverse axis.
  • noun (Astron.) The ratio of the distance of the center of the orbit of a heavenly body from the center of the body round which it revolves to the semi-transverse axis of the orbit.
  • noun (Mech.) The distance of the center of figure of a body, as of an eccentric, from an axis about which it turns; the throw.

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

  • noun The quality of being eccentric; any eccentric behaviour.
  • noun mathematics The ratio, constant for any particular conic section, of the distance of a point from the focus to its distance from the directrix

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

  • noun (geometry) a ratio describing the shape of a conic section; the ratio of the distance between the foci to the length of the major axis
  • noun a circularity that has a different center or deviates from a circular path
  • noun strange and unconventional behavior

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

eccentric +‎ -ity

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