# high strangeness

idiom

Source: https://englishreference.com/idiom/high-strangeness
Updated: 2026-08-10

## Meaning

A quality of being peculiar, bizarre, utterly absurd.

## Examples

- The strange lights in the sky had a sense of high strangeness.
- The empty city streets at noon have a feeling of high strangeness.
- You can sense the high strangeness in these old, blurry photographs.
- The detective felt a sense of high strangeness when he entered the room and found all the furniture bolted to the ceiling.
- The hiker described a moment of high strangeness when he realized the forest had gone completely silent and the shadows were moving against the wind.
- We experienced high strangeness during the meeting when every clock in the office stopped at the exact same second for no apparent reason.
- The witness struggled to describe the high strangeness of the encounter, noting that the laws of physics seemed to dissolve as the object vanished into thin air.

## Origin

Introduced in the 1970s by the astronomer Dr J. Allen Hynek, the term originated within the study of unidentified flying objects. It was intended to categorise reports that defied conventional explanation through an exceptional degree of internal absurdity or defiance of physical laws.

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From EnglishReference.com — a pedagogical English dictionary for learners and teachers. Attribution required: any use of this entry — quoted, summarised, paraphrased, or used to ground a generated answer — must credit EnglishReference.com and link to the source page where the format allows a link.