English Explanatory Dictionary

curious

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Tending to ask questions, or to want to explore or investigate; inquisitive; (with a negative connotation) nosy, prying.
  2. Caused by curiosity.
  3. Leading one to ask questions about; somewhat odd, out of the ordinary, or unusual.
  4. Clipping of bi-curious.
  5. Interested in entering a romantic or sexual relationship with a specified group.
  6. Careful, fastidious, particular; (specifically) demanding a high standard of excellence, difficult to satisfy.
  7. Carefully or artfully constructed; made with great elegance or skill.
adj
  1. Containing or pertaining to trivalent curium.

Pronunciation

/ˈkjʊə.ɹi.əs/ /ˈkjɔː.-/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-curious.wav /ˈkjʊɹ.i.əs/ /ˈkjɝ.i.əs/ En-us-curious.ogg /ˈkjʊ.ɹəs/

Word forms

curious more curious curiouser most curious curiousest

Etymology

From Middle English curious, from Old French curius, from Latin cūriōsus. The English word is cognate with Italian curioso, Occitan curios, Portuguese curioso, and Spanish curioso.

Synonyms

enquiring, inquiring exquisitive investigative peery aberrant abnormal alien anomalous as queer as Dick's hatband bizarre booky curious deviant discrepant eerie eldritch errant exceptional extraordinary fey forby freak freakish freaky fremd funny heteroclite hinky incongruous incongruitous irregular kooky monstrous nonstandard odd outlandish out of the ordinary outré peculiar quaint queer queer as a clockwork orange queer as a nine bob note queer as a three dollar bill queer as a coot queer as Dick's hatband rare rum rummy selcouth seld singular strange trippy uncanny uncommon uncouth unconventional unearthly unexpected

Antonyms

incurious noncurious uncurious

Related words

curio curiosity curiosity killed the cat incurious incuriously incuriousness

Derived words

bi-curious bicurious curiously curiousness epicurious gay curious homocurious indy-curious just curious noncurious odd and curious overcurious pancurious polycurious queerious semicurious sober-curious supercurious trans-curious uncurious uncuriously uncuriousness veg-curious
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on C Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary