English Explanatory Dictionary

strange

English dictionary entry

Meanings

adj
  1. Not normal; odd, unusual, surprising, out of the ordinary, often with a negative connotation.
  2. Unfamiliar, not yet part of one's experience.
  3. Outside of one's current relationship; unfamiliar.
  4. Having the quantum mechanical property of strangeness.
  5. Of an attractor: having a fractal structure.
  6. Belonging to another country; foreign.
  7. Reserved; distant in deportment.
  8. Backward; slow.
  9. Not familiar; unaccustomed; inexperienced.
  10. Not belonging to one.
verb
  1. To alienate; to estrange.
  2. To be estranged or alienated.
  3. To wonder; to be astonished at (something).
noun
  1. Sex outside of one's current relationship.
  2. A strange quark.
name
  1. A surname.
  2. A community in King township, Ontario, Canada, named after Frederick William Strange.

Pronunciation

strānj /stɹeɪnd͡ʒ/ [ʃtɹeɪnd͡ʒ] en-us-strange.ogg

Word forms

strange stranger strangest stranges stranging stranged

Etymology

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *h₁éǵʰ Proto-Indo-European *-s Proto-Indo-European *h₁éǵʰs Proto-Indo-European *-teros Proto-Indo-European *h₁eǵʰsteros Proto-Italic *eksteros Latin exter Latin extrā Proto-Indo-European *-nós Proto-Italic *-nos Latin -nus Latin -ānus Proto-Indo-European *-yósder. Proto-Indo-European *-éyos Proto-Italic *-ejos Proto-Italic *-eos Latin -eus Latin -āneus Latin extrāneusder. Old French estrange Anglo-Norman estraungebor. Middle English straunge English strange From Middle English straunge, strange, stronge, from Old French estrange, from Latin extrāneus (“that which is on the outside”). Doublet of extraneous and estrange. Cognate with French étrange (“strange, foreign”) and Spanish extraño (“strange, foreign”). Largely displaced native fremd, selcouth, and uncouth, from Old English fremede, seldcūþ, and uncūþ.

Synonyms

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 unreasonable unusual unwonted weird

Antonyms

common familiar inevitable intermediate moderate normal everyday regular standard usual known

Related words

estrange estranged stranger outlier there's nowt so queer as folk crooked

Derived words

bestrange fact is stranger than fiction like a cat in a strange garret make strange multistrange nonstrange sstrange sstrange squark strange as it may seem strange-ass strange bedfellow strange bird strange fruit strange-horned toad strangelet strangeling strangely strange matter strange minds think alike strangen strangeness strangeon strangeonium strange quark strange star strange to say strange woman strangification strangify truth is stranger than fiction unstrange get some strange tame strange
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