eccentricity
/ˌɛk.sɛnˈtɹɪs.ɪ.ti/
eccentricity means the quality of being eccentric or odd; any eccentric behaviour. It carries an Arena rating of 1507, earned across 2 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, eccentricity ranks #976 of 17,123 for Most Malleable Words, #1,225 of 17,130 for Most Ingenious Words, #2,812 of 17,116 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #2,832 of 17,125 for Most Incisive Words.
eccentricity is pronounced /ˌɛk.sɛnˈtɹɪs.ɪ.ti/.
Why “eccentricity” is a great word
The quality of being unconventional or odd in behavior, or, in geometry and astronomy, a scalar parameter that defines the shape of a conic section or orbital path. From Latin eccentricitās, from eccentricus ('not having the same center, deviating from the norm'), itself from Greek ekkentros ('off center'), from ek ('out of') + kentron ('center'). Unlike 'idiosyncrasy,' which names a personal quirk, or 'conformity,' which denotes compliance with norms, eccentricity is a visible, structural deviation from the center. It is the Victorian naturalist walking his pet lobster on a velvet lead; the comet tracing a deliberate elliptical path around a distant sun; the heiress who wears her tiara to the grocery store because the weight feels like truth. Both in the heavens and on earth, it is the courage to orbit a center of one's own choosing.
Etymology
Borrowed from Latin eccentricitās. By surface analysis, eccentric + -ity.
noun
- The quality of being eccentric or odd; any eccentric behaviour.
- The ratio, constant for any particular conic section, of the distance of a point from the focus to its distance from the directrix.e.g.“For an ellipse, the eccentricity is the ratio of the distance from the center to a focus divided by the length of the semi-major axis.”
- The eccentricity of the conic section (usually an ellipse) defined by the orbit of a given object around a reference object (such as that of a planet around the sun).
- The farthest distance from a vertex to any other vertex.
Words closest in meaning
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