oddity

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   An odd or strange thing or opinion.

   In the old days, to my commonplace and unobserving mind, he gave no evidences of genius whatsoever. He never read me any of his manuscripts, […], and therefore my lack of detection of his promise may in some degree be pardoned. But he had then none of the oddities and mannerisms which I hold to be inseparable from genius, and which struck my attention in after days when I came in contact with the Celebrity.

2. 2
   noun

   A strange person; an oddball.

   Fête succeeded fête in honour of the arrival of Christina of Sweden, who seemed to communicate her own reckless love of novelty to the then somewhat staid French court. Claim your privileges as an oddity, and even you yourself will be astonished at their extent.

3. 3
   noun

   Strangeness.

   The thing was unprecedented in his experience, and probably he wondered in his equine way at the eccentricities of the human race, and questioned whether oddity might not be merging into insanity in his master’s case.

4. 4
   noun

   something unusual -- perhaps worthy of collecting

5. 5
   noun

   a strange attitude or habit

6. 6
   noun

   eccentricity that is not easily explained

Etymology

From odd + -ity.