adjective
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slang strange; unconventional; bizarre
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another word for freakish
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of freaky
Explanation
Something freaky is so weird that it's almost scary. If you have a freaky dream, you might wake with a frightened gasp. Very strange looking animals are freaky, and creepy stories told at night around a campfire are best when they're a little freaky. An uncanny coincidence is freaky, and so are many Halloween costumes. The adjective is an informal way to say "bizarre" or "peculiar." It comes from freak, but the ultimate origin is unknown — although freak originally meant "a very sudden turn of mind."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“We didn’t know. And so that was a freaky moment.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
Chase told The Times in 2002 that she took her own voice “and put this freaky twist on it” to play the character.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 29, 2026
"Moss is a little bit freaky," says von Konrat.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 6, 2026
As I reported in detail for my first story at Slate, all those years ago, the market was freaky.
From Slate ● Dec. 10, 2025
Then again, she was a spider, with her eight hairy legs, millions of freaky eyes, and two of the scariest fangs of any animal.
From "Healer of the Water Monster" by Brian Young
Yet this novel is more interesting when it explores the freakier aspects of the alien’s presence: Every evening at around the same time, local oldsters with dementia become briefly lucid.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 30, 2026
The family dynamic gets freakier as there is a quadruple body-swapping.
From BBC ● Jul. 31, 2025
There are two things even freakier than seeing vibrating magnetic fields of plasma-light around our galaxy's black hole.
From Salon ● Mar. 28, 2024
The freakier things get, the less you know what to expect, and not knowing what to worry about is even more tense.
From Slate ● Jun. 30, 2021
Beauty may always be a little bit freakish, but the year I turned thirteen I was becoming freakier than ever.
From "Middlesex: A Novel" by Jeffrey Eugenides
But even among the freakiest stars in the universe, things can get weirder.
From Salon ● Oct. 27, 2022
It’s a rare feat for an artist’s freakiest record to double as its commercial breakthrough.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 24, 2021
"I couldn’t have seen it coming. I didn’t exchange words with this guy. Nothing. It was so bizarre, so random. That’s kind of the freakiest part."
From Fox News ● Jul. 17, 2021
Speaking to the newspaper, Mr Pekny's oldest brother, Peter Pekny Jr, described what happened as "the freakiest of freak accidents that I could ever imagine".
From BBC ● Feb. 22, 2021
“Like this isn’t a gang. Please. It’s the freakiest gang ever.”
From "Beauty Queens" by Libba Bray
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
