Link Centre Dictionary

bizarre

bi·zarre

UK/bɪˈzɑː(ɹ)/ US/bəˈzɑː(ɹ)/ fairly common

adjective

1.

conspicuously or grossly unconventional or unusual

  • “restaurants of bizarre design--one like a hat, another like a rabbit”
  • “famed for his eccentric spelling”
  • “a freakish combination of styles”
  • “his off-the-wall antics”
  • “the outlandish clothes of teenagers”
  • “outre and affected stage antics”

Origin

Borrowed from French bizarre (“odd, peculiar, bizarre”, formerly “headlong, angry”), then either from Italian bizzarro (“weird, eccentric, frisky”) or, less likely, from Basque bizar (literally “beard”, from the notion that bearded Spanish soldiers made a strange impression on the French).

Related words

Word family

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.