weird

[weerd] /wɪərd/
adjective, weirder, weirdest.
1.
involving or suggesting the supernatural; unearthly or uncanny:
a weird sound; weird lights.
2.
fantastic; bizarre:
a weird getup.
3.
Archaic. concerned with or controlling fate or destiny.
noun, Chiefly Scot.
4.
fate; destiny.
5.
fate (def 6).
Origin
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 forms
weirdly, adverb
weirdness, noun
Synonyms
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
1. natural.
Examples from the web for weird
  • All of these weird plants have adaptations that help them survive.
  • Now it's fashionable to grow a beard and wear weird clothes and say you're a hippie.
  • His work is weird, all right, but the best kind of weird — the kind that welcomes you in.
  • When you run a cult pizza place, you get used to all kinds of weird behavior.
  • Sometimes he shimmers behind scrims, or is set off by weird lighting that the banqueters are not supposed to see.
  • No wonder my friends began to think of me as being a little weird when it comes to movies.
  • But then so are the weird keyboard experiments, and they are part of the same world as the madrigals.
  • Click for more information on this year's weird weather.
British Dictionary definitions for weird

weird

/wɪəd/
adjective
1.
suggestive of or relating to the supernatural; eerie
2.
strange or bizarre
3.
(archaic) of or relating to fate or the Fates
noun
4.
(archaic, mainly Scot)
  1. fate or destiny
  2. one of the Fates
5.
(Scot) dree one's weird, See dree
verb
6.
(transitive) (Scot) to destine or ordain by fate; predict
See also weird out
Derived Forms
weirdly, adverb
weirdness, noun
Word Origin
Old English (ge)wyrd destiny; related to weorthan to become, Old Norse urthr bane, Old Saxon wurd; see worth²
Word Origin and History for 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.

Slang definitions & phrases for weird

weird

adjective

Excellent; wonderful; cool

[1940s+ Bop talk & cool talk; also attested as 1920s British upper-class use]