bizarre

[bih-zahr]

adjective

1. markedly unusual in appearance, style, or general character and often involving incongruous or unexpected elements; outrageously or whimsically strange; odd.

   bizarre clothing; bizarre behavior.

   Synonyms: odd, strange, unusual, fantastic, grotesque, freakish, weird

bizarre

/ bɪˈzɑː /

adjective

1. odd or unusual, esp in an interesting or amusing way

Other Word Forms

• bizarrely adverb
• bizarreness noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of bizarre¹

First recorded in 1640–50; from French: “strange, odd,” from Italian bizzarro “quick to anger, choleric,” then “capricious,” then “strange, weird”; further origin disputed

Word History and Origins

Origin of bizarre¹

C17: from French: from Italian bizzarro capricious, of uncertain origin

Synonym Study

Bizarre, fantastic, grotesque, weird share a sense of deviation from what is normal or expected. Bizarre means markedly unusual or extraordinarily strange, sometimes whimsically so: bizarre costumes for Mardi Gras; bizarre behavior. Fantastic suggests a wild lack of restraint, a fancifulness so extreme as to lose touch with reality: a fantastic scheme for a series of space cities. In informal use, fantastic often means simply “exceptionally good”: a fantastic meal. Grotesque implies shocking distortion or incongruity, sometimes ludicrous, more often pitiful or tragic: a grotesque mixture of human and animal features; grotesque contrast between the forced smile and sad eyes: a gnarled tree suggesting the figure of a grotesque human being. Weird refers to that which is mysterious and apparently outside natural law, hence supernatural or uncanny: the weird adventures of a group lost in the jungle; a weird and ghostly apparition. Informally, weird means “very strange”: weird and wacky costumes; weird sense of humor.

Example Sentences

It was just surreal and bizarre, and maybe that won’t fly in prime time or late night, but like “Red Eye,” our show now is as interesting and unpredictable as that show was.

From Los Angeles Times

"I don't understand how you can watch football and referee football for that long and not understand certain dynamics. It was just a bizarre interpretation."

From BBC

Suddenly it was game on, though bizarrely the conversion directly under the posts was charged down and Scotland still led by seven.

From BBC

And then there is Dolphin, who Wilson sympathises with most as "she's always the go-to person, the one holding things together when Marigold gets into bizarre scrapes".

From BBC

Scientists have discovered a bizarre armoured dinosaur which had metre-long spikes sticking out from its neck.

From BBC

Related Words

• comical 
• curious 
• extraordinary 
• fantastic 
• freakish 
• grotesque 
• ludicrous 
• odd 
• offbeat 
• outlandish 
• peculiar 
• ridiculous 
• unusual 
• weird