bizarre en · ADJ
Pronunciation
- /bəˈzɑɹ/ weak vowel merger
- (US) audio
- /bɪˈzɑː(ɹ)/ weak vowel distinction
- (UK) audio
- /bəˈzɑː(ɹ)/ weak vowel merger
- /bɪˈzɑɹ/ weak vowel distinction
Etymology
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).
Meanings
-
Strangely unconventional; highly unusual and different from common experience, often in an extravagant, fantastic, and/or conspicuous way.
I confess that I had not up to now taken a very serious view of the case, which had seemed to me rather grotesque and bizarre than dangerous.
1903 December 26, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., published February 1905, →OCLC:That's what we are / We all want a love bizarre
1985, “A Love Bizarre”, in Romance 1600, performed by Sheila E. ft. Prince:That was a bizarre adventure!
[…]no, the abjectly unheroic nature of the death,—that was the sting,—that and the bizarre wording of the resulting obituary: “Shot with a rock, on a raft.”
1880, Mark Twain [pseudonym] (Samuel L[anghorne] Clemens), chapter XVII, in A Tramp Abroad; […], Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company; London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, pages 154–155:West Brom enjoyed more possession as the half progressed and were handed a penalty of their own in the 21st minute in bizarre circumstances.
2011 October 22, Sam Sheringham, “Aston Villa 1 - 2 West Brom”, in BBC Sport, archived from the original on 27 Aug 2025:[…] she had brass leggings to the knee, brass wire gauntlets to the elbow, a crimson spot on her tawny cheek, innumerable necklaces of glass beads on her neck; bizarre things, charms, gifts of witch-men, that hung about her, glittered and trembled at every step.
1899 (please specify the page), Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part:Unfortunately, she has used the attack as a launch pad for a bizarre and undercooked exercise in rhetorical bothsidesism, in which she argues that American Jews should be just as worried about college students who overzealously criticize Israel as they are about the aspiring Einsatzgruppen who shoot up shuls.
2019 September 6, Jordan Weissman, “How Not to Fight Anti-Semitism”, in Slate, archived from the original on 14 Apr 2021:Strange as it all was, bizarre as it may hereafter seem even to us who felt its potent influence at the time, it comforted us much; and the silence, which showed Mrs. Harker’s coming relapse from her freedom of soul, did not seem so full of despair to any of us as we had dreaded.
1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable and Company, […], →OCLC:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| bizarrer | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic | |
| more bizarre | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic | |
| most bizarre | Degree=Sup | lexicographic | |
| bizarrest | Degree=Sup | lexicographic |
Deriveds
bizarreness · bizarrerie · unbizarre · bizarre caddisfly · bizarrity · bizarrely · bizarre magic · bizarro
Translations (64)
ota دلی (strangely unconventional) · sh bȉzāran (strangely unconventional) · es bizarro (strangely unconventional) · fr bizarre (strangely unconventional) · pt bizarro (strangely unconventional) · nl bizar (strangely unconventional) · pl dziwny (strangely unconventional) · es extraño (strangely unconventional) · ro ciudat (strangely unconventional) · ru ненорма́льный (strangely unconventional) · ru эксцентри́чный (strangely unconventional) · de seltsam (strangely unconventional) · cmn 不可思議 /不可思议 (strangely unconventional) · eo bizara (strangely unconventional) · ru чудно́й (strangely unconventional) · mi haraki (strangely unconventional) · pl arcydziwny (strangely unconventional) · cs bizarní (strangely unconventional) · mi pākehakeha (strangely unconventional) · es raro (strangely unconventional) · ca estrafolari (strangely unconventional) · hu bizarr (strangely unconventional) · es rocambolesco (strangely unconventional) · gl desavieso (strangely unconventional) · fi outo (strangely unconventional) · es estrafalario (strangely unconventional) · io bizara (strangely unconventional) · sv bisarr (strangely unconventional) · gl rechamante (strangely unconventional) · tr tuhaf (strangely unconventional) · cmn 奇怪 (strangely unconventional) · fa عجیب و غریب (strangely unconventional) · ru причу́дливый (strangely unconventional) · gl estrano (strangely unconventional) · bg странен (strangely unconventional) · gl estraio (strangely unconventional) · ja 奇妙 (strangely unconventional) · tr acayip (strangely unconventional) · fi eriskummallinen (strangely unconventional) · pl cudaczny (strangely unconventional) · li biezar (strangely unconventional) · id aneh (strangely unconventional) · ia bizarre (strangely unconventional) · tr garip (strangely unconventional) · he מוזר (strangely unconventional) · pl przedziwny (strangely unconventional) · de komisch (strangely unconventional) · de bizarr (strangely unconventional) · da bizar (strangely unconventional) · fa طرفه (strangely unconventional) · vi kỳ quái (strangely unconventional) · ro bizar (strangely unconventional) · fi omituinen (strangely unconventional) · ca estrany (strangely unconventional) · pt estranho (strangely unconventional) · bg чудат (strangely unconventional) · it bizzarro (strangely unconventional) · ru неесте́ственный (strangely unconventional) · mi pakepakehā (strangely unconventional) · ru стра́нный (strangely unconventional) · gl zarapallón (strangely unconventional) · bg особен (strangely unconventional) · es estrambótico (strangely unconventional) · he ביזארי (strangely unconventional)