adj

weird

WEERD

adj

Strange, unusual, or hard to explain; not what you would normally expect.

"There was a weird smell coming from the fridge."

"It felt weird going back to my old school after all these years."

Eerie or unsettling in a way that suggests something supernatural.

"The abandoned house had a weird, unsettling atmosphere at night."

How to Use Weird

Learner’s notes

In plain EnglishOut of the ordinary in a way that catches your attention — odd, unexpected, or a little unsettling.

Memory tip

In casual speech, "weird" is often just a mild way of saying something is unusual, not necessarily bad — "that's weird" can be said with curiosity rather than alarm.

Trace the full origin ↓

Common pairings

a weird feeling weird noise act weird weird coincidence

Word Forms

weirder comparative, weirded past tense, weirds plural, weirds singular, weirdest superlative

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Fill the Gap

Can you complete this real example?

There was a _____ smell coming from the fridge.

Etymology

From Old English wyrd, "fate" or "destiny." The word originally referred to fate itself — Shakespeare's "Weird Sisters" in Macbeth were literally the Sisters of Fate. The modern sense of "strange" grew out of how eerie and otherworldly that idea seemed.