bizarre means strangely unconventional; highly unusual and different from common experience, often in an extravagant, fantastic, and/or conspicuous way. It carries an Arena rating of 1643, earned across 3 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, bizarre ranks #1,386 of 25,264 for Qualifying, #2,351 of 14,308 for Most Malleable Words, #2,374 of 14,451 for Most Whimsical Words, #2,517 of 14,440 for Most Satisfying to Say.
bizarre is pronounced /bɪˈzɑː(ɹ)/.
Why “bizarre” is a great word
Strangely unconventional, highly unusual and different from common experience, often in an extravagant, fantastic, or conspicuous way. From French bizarre ("odd, peculiar"), from Italian bizzarro ("weird, eccentric, irascible"), possibly from bizza ("tantrum, fit of anger"). A less certain theory suggests a derivation from Basque bizar ("beard"), from the notion that bearded Spanish soldiers made a strange impression on the French. First attested in English c. 1640s. Unlike "eccentric," which describes a deviation in habit, or the neutral "unusual," which simply marks a departure from the norm, "bizarre" carries a charge of the fantastical and grotesque. It is the Victorian taxidermist who dresses dead mice as tiny bishops, the architectural flourish that serves no purpose but to confound, or the sudden, unexplained appearance of a fully dressed mannequin floating in a reservoir at dawn—the world’s quiet insistence that not everything can be, or should be, explained.
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).
adj
- Strangely unconventional; highly unusual and different from common experience, often in an extravagant, fantastic, and/or conspicuous way.e.g.“That was a bizarre adventure!”
noun
- Any of several types of flower with stripes of various colours.; A carnation having stripes of two distinct colours on the white petals.
- Any of several types of flower with stripes of various colours.; A tulip with a certain pattern of various colored stripes.
Words closest in meaning
By meaning, not spelling — each word's AI semantic fingerprint, nearest first.