ENGLISH
REFERENCE

bizarre

adj.
C1 Advanced Oxford US //bəˈzɑɹ// UK //bɪzˈɑː// bizarre

adj. very strange or unusual in a way that is hard to explain. You use it to describe something that feels like a weird dream.

adj. strikingly out of the ordinary or eccentric in style or appearance. Often implies a sense of surrealism or a violation of expected norms.


SIMPLE

The weather today is truly bizarre.

CONTEXTUAL

The detective found a bizarre collection of antique clocks in the suspect's basement, all set to different time zones.

COMPLEX

While the plot of the film starts as a standard mystery, it eventually descends into a bizarre series of hallucinations that leave the audience questioning the protagonist's sanity.

Synonyms
Origin

Borrowed from French bizarre (“odd, peculiar, bizarre”, formerly “headlong, angry”). Either from Basque bizar (“a beard”) (the notion being that bearded Spanish soldiers made a strange impression on the French), or from Italian bizzarro.

Usage

Gradable adjective — can be used with intensifiers like 'quite', 'very', or 'absolutely'.

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