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Synonyms

oddity

American  
[od-i-tee] / ˈɒd ɪ ti /

noun

plural

oddities

  1. an odd or remarkably unusual person, thing, or event.

    Synonyms:
    wonder, curiosity, rarity

  2. the quality of being odd; singularity, strangeness, or eccentricity.

  3. an odd characteristic or trait; peculiarity.

oddity British  
/ ˈɒdɪtɪ /

noun

  1. an odd person or thing

  2. an odd quality or characteristic

  3. the condition of being odd

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of oddity

First recorded in 1705–15; odd + -ity

Explanation

An oddity is anything strange or unusual. Wearing ear muffs during a heat wave would be considered an oddity, because most people wouldn't do that. Anything odd is weird, strange, unusual, or bizarre. Oddities are things like that. Calling good friends "sir" would be an oddity, since that word is usually used in formal situations. Oddities can also be objects, especially unusual objects or souvenirs someone might collect.

Keep Reading on Vocabulary.com

Vocabulary lists containing oddity

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

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"Superman and Me" and "A Smart Cookie/It's Our Story, Too"

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Emma

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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.

In yeast they are extremely small and precise -- a striking oddity in the tree of life that has puzzled chromosome biologists for decades.

From Science Daily • Mar. 10, 2026

How this proudly low-budget effort managed to license those tunes is as curious as so much else in this ragtag oddity.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 27, 2026

Manchester United are still a bit of an oddity but they are entertaining, you'd give them that.

From BBC • Dec. 18, 2025

I was curious enough to email eBay and report the oddity.

From MarketWatch • Nov. 25, 2025

The Lowell Observatory, as you will recall, was a bit of an oddity thanks to Percival Lowell’s obsession with Martian canals, which in the 1910s made it, in every sense, an outpost of astronomical endeavor.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

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.