weird

[weerd]

See more synonyms for weird on Thesaurus.com

adjective, weird·er, weird·est.

involving or suggesting the supernatural; unearthly or uncanny: a weird sound; weird lights.
fantastic; bizarre: a weird getup.
Archaic. concerned with or controlling fate or destiny.

noun Chiefly Scot.

fate; destiny.
fate(def 6).

Origin of weird

before 900; (noun) Middle English (northern form of wird), Old English wyrd; akin to worth²; (adj.) Middle English, orig. attributive noun in phrase werde sisters the Fates (popularized as appellation of the witches in Macbeth)

Related formsweird·ly, adverbweird·ness, noun

Synonyms for weird

See more synonyms for on Thesaurus.com

1. unnatural, preternatural. weird, eerie, unearthly, uncanny refer to that which is mysterious and apparently outside natural law. Weird refers to that which is suggestive of the fateful intervention of supernatural influences in human affairs: the weird adventures of a group lost in the jungle. Eerie refers to that which, by suggesting the ghostly, makes one's flesh creep: an eerie moaning from a deserted house. Unearthly refers to that which seems by its nature to belong to another world: an unearthly light that preceded the storm. Uncanny refers to that which is mysterious because of its apparent defiance of the laws established by experience: an uncanny ability to recall numbers.

Antonyms for weird

1. natural.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for weirder

outlandish, haunting, horrific, eerie, spooky, magical, creepy, kooky, mysterious, funky, strange, supernatural, ghastly, eccentric, awful, curious, unnatural, freaky, peculiar, occult

Examples from the Web for weirder

Contemporary Examples of weirder

I like his weirder, more ambitious novels even when they go off the rails.
Haruki Murakami's Weird, Wonderful World
Malcolm Jones
August 15, 2014
Which makes it all the weirder that Hamm has appeared in exactly one blockbuster to date.
Why Can’t I Be a Movie Star, B*tch? Aaron Paul Tries in 'Need for Speed'
Andrew Romano
March 13, 2014
It happened in the middle of the night, which made it weirder—and more thrilling.
What Happened to Big-Screen Hunk Casper Van Dien?
Ramin Setoodeh
July 11, 2012
Sad to say, as this Paterson story gets weirder and weirder, it becomes less and less fun.
Will Paterson Go?
Eric Alterman
February 26, 2010
Black Friday: bigger, weirder, and seemingly more vital to our economy than ever before.
Black Friday, Zombie Holiday
Mike Albo
November 25, 2009

Historical Examples of weirder

The watch may be weird, but no weirder than that of a previous night.
The Forsaken Inn
Anna Katharine Green
And, after all, is it weirder than the common traditional method?
Your United States
Arnold Bennett
The old witch-hanging city had no weirder product than this dark-haired son.
Literary and Social Essays
George William Curtis
One would have to go far to find a wilder, weirder, and more grimly suggestive spot.
Scottish Ghost Stories
Elliott O'Donnell
A subtler, a weirder, a more awful horror is thus added to the dread of communion with the supernatural.
The Science of Fairy Tales
Edwin Sidney Hartland

British Dictionary definitions for weirder

weird

adjective

suggestive of or relating to the supernatural; eerie
strange or bizarre
archaic of or relating to fate or the Fates

noun

archaic, mainly Scot
1. fate or destiny
2. one of the Fates
dree one's weird Scot See dree

verb

(tr) Scot to destine or ordain by fate; predict

Word Origin for weird

Old English (ge) wyrd destiny; related to weorthan to become, Old Norse urthr bane, Old Saxon wurd; see worth ²

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

Word Origin and History for weirder

weird

Old English wyrd (n.) "fate, destiny," literally "that which comes," from Proto-Germanic *wurthis (cf. Old Saxon wurd, Old High German wurt "fate," Old Norse urðr "fate, one of the three Norns"), from PIE *wert- "to turn, wind," (cf. German werden, Old English weorðan "to become"), from root *wer- (3) "to turn, bend" (see versus). For sense development from "turning" to "becoming," cf. phrase turn into "become."

The modern sense of weird developed from Middle English use of weird sisters for the three fates or Norns (in Germanic mythology), the goddesses who controlled human destiny. They were portrayed as odd or frightening in appearance, as in "Macbeth," which led to the adjectival meaning "odd-looking, uncanny," first recorded 1815.