Definitions

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

  • adjective Strikingly odd or unusual, especially in an unsettling way; strange.
  • adjective Suggestive of the supernatural.
  • adjective Archaic Of or relating to fate or the Fates.
  • noun Fate; destiny.
  • noun One's assigned lot or fortune, especially when evil.
  • transitive & intransitive verb Slang To experience or cause to experience an odd, unusual, and sometimes uneasy sensation. Often used with out.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Fate; destiny; luck.
  • noun A prediction.
  • noun A spell; a charm.
  • noun That which comes to pass; a fact.
  • noun The Fates personified.
  • Connected with fate or destiny; able to influence fate.
  • Of or pertaining to witches or witchcraft; supernatural; hence, unearthly; suggestive of witches, witchery, or unearthliness; wild; uncanny.
  • To destine; doom; change by witchcraft or sorcery.
  • To warn solemnly; adjure.

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

  • transitive verb Scot. To foretell the fate of; to predict; to destine to.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to fate; concerned with destiny.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to witchcraft; caused by, or suggesting, magical influence; supernatural; unearthly; wild.
  • adjective [Scot.] the Fates.
  • noun Obs. or Scot. Fate; destiny; one of the Fates, or Norns; also, a prediction.
  • noun Obs. or Scot. A spell or charm.

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

  • noun archaic, except in Scots Fate; destiny; luck.
  • noun A prediction.
  • noun A spell or charm.
  • noun That which comes to pass; a fact.
  • noun archaic, in the plural The Fates (personified).
  • adjective Connected with fate or destiny; able to influence fate.
  • adjective Of or pertaining to witches or witchcraft; supernatural; unearthly; suggestive of witches, witchcraft, or unearthliness; wild; uncanny.
  • adjective Having supernatural or preternatural power.
  • adjective Having an unusually strange character or behaviour.
  • adjective Deviating from the normal; bizarre.
  • adjective archaic Of or pertaining to the Fates.
  • verb transitive To destine; doom; change by witchcraft or sorcery.
  • verb transitive To warn solemnly; adjure.
  • verb transitive To make (one) feel weird; make uneasy or uncomfortable due to weirdness; strike one as being weird.

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

  • adjective strikingly odd or unusual
  • noun fate personified; any one of the three Weird Sisters
  • adjective suggesting the operation of supernatural influences

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English werd, wird, fate (often in the pl. wirdes, the Fates), from Old English wyrd; see wer- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English werde, wierde, wirde, wyrede, wurde, from Old English wyrd, wurd ("that which happens, fate, chance, fortune, destiny, Fate, the Fates, Providence, event, phenomenon, transaction, fact, deed"), from Proto-Germanic *wurdiz (“fate, destiny”), from Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to turn, wind”). Cognate with Middle Low German wrd, wrth ("fate, death"), Middle High German wurt ("fate, death"), Icelandic urður ("fate"). Related to Old English weorþan ("to become"). More at worth.

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Examples

  • Like Hawthorne's, like the works of our great symbolists, they are restricted by a sense of some obtaining conception, some weird metaphysical _weird_ or preconception.

    Robert Louis Stevenson: a record, an estimate, and a memorial 1871

  • I would argue that the term weird, far from being pejorative, is instead intended to express and celebrate the extraordinary uniqueness of medieval animals.

    WMAM After a Busy Weekend 2008

  • I would argue that the term weird, far from being pejorative, is instead intended to express and celebrate the extraordinary uniqueness of medieval animals.

    Archive 2008-05-01 2008

  • By week's end, the Obama folks were desperately trying to walk this back -- going so far as to suggest that anyone on the campaign staff who used the word "weird" would be fired.

    Chris Weigant: Friday Talking Points -- Corporations Are People, Mitt? Chris Weigant 2011

  • By week's end, the Obama folks were desperately trying to walk this back -- going so far as to suggest that anyone on the campaign staff who used the word "weird" would be fired.

    Chris Weigant: Friday Talking Points -- Corporations Are People, Mitt? Chris Weigant 2011

  • You mentioned the rabbi, you mentioned your priest, you may have friends, you may have what you call the weird cousin Willie, if you actually have one, I don't know if you do or not, but you can create ...

    CNN Transcript Dec 10, 2009 2009

  • They are now detaining a number of POWs, some believed to be Fedayeen, 31 they counted yesterday late, and the way they found them in a house off the highway on the way up here, they found them clustered together and they looked at their arms, Daryn, and six had these very what they call weird tattoos, an F with wings coming out, which indicates Saddam Fedayeen, a paramilitary group.

    CNN Transcript Apr 4, 2003 2003

  • The word "weird" is in itself quite an evolved beast.

    Telegraph.co.uk - Telegraph online, Daily Telegraph, Sunday Telegraph Sandi Toksvig 2012

  • Based on my as yet highly limited experience, the term weird fiction seems both slippery and all-encompassing; it’s hardly as ‘solid’ – commercially and culturally – as horror, fantasy, sci-fi and its subsets… and yet, it seems to take in all of these genres.

    Testing the Weird 2010

  • Yeah, seems like a little bit of something from the Miramax playbook with regard to Asian films. wedgeee actually ... that trailer for the good the bad and the weird is awful!!! watch some of the offical korean ones. they are MUCH better cut and evoke a ton more atmosphere!!! the good the bad the weird is a brilliant film, cant say enough how much i love it. seen it at least 4 times now. evilninjax

    This Week In Trailers: Bananas!*, Shaolin, Legacy, The Good, The Bad and The Weird, I Know You Know | /Film 2010

  • WEIRD is the phenomenon that plagues a lot of psychology and other social science studies: Their participants are overwhelming Western, educated, and from industrialized, rich, and democratic countries. They’re WEIRD.

    Social Science is WEIRD, and That’s a Problem. Bethany Brookshire 2013

Comments

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  • wyrd, I like the strange, I like to collect it and become stranger with time.

    December 7, 2006

  • I just noticed this word breaks the 'i before e, except after c or when sounding like a as in neighbor or weigh' rule!

    February 4, 2009

  • That's weird.

    February 4, 2009

  • The weird thing is...

    May 30, 2010