noun
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an odd person or thing
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an odd quality or characteristic
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the condition of being odd
Etymology
Origin of oddity
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.
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.
The unusual rocky planet could represent a rare cosmic oddity, or it might reveal a broader trend astronomers have not yet recognized.
From Science Daily • May 21, 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
He noted the oddity of silent construction sites, where workers would normally be playing music.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 9, 2026
Such was the oddity of Anthony Joshua v Jake Paul even taking place, the fight landed on Netflix under a cloud of suspicion that boxing had surrendered itself to choreography.
From BBC • Dec. 20, 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.
