strange
/streɪn(d)ʒ
/adjective
1Unusual or surprising; difficult to understand or explain: children have some strange ideas he’s a very strange man [with clause]: it is strange how things change...
- It is strange how ideas such as these last almost as long as brick and mortar buildings.
- It was strange how the country air smelled so different from the city air.
- It is strange how such concealment goes hand in hand with record-breaking council tax rises.
Synonyms
unusual, odd, curious, peculiar, funny, bizarre, weird, uncanny, queer, unexpected, unfamiliar, abnormal, atypical, anomalous, untypical, different, out of the ordinary, out of the way, extraordinary, remarkable, puzzling, mystifying, mysterious, perplexing, baffling, unaccountable, inexplicable, incongruous, uncommon, irregular, singular, deviant, aberrant, freak, freakish, surreal;
suspicious, dubious, questionable;
eerie, unnatural;
French outré;
Scottish unco
informal fishy, creepy, spooky
British informal rum
North American informal bizarro
weird, eccentric, odd, peculiar, funny, bizarre, unusual, abnormal;
unconventional, idiosyncratic, outlandish, offbeat, freakish, quirky, quaint, zany, off-centre
informal wacky, way out, freaky, kooky, kinky, oddball, like nothing on earth, cranky
North American informal screwy, off the wall, wacko
Australian/New Zealand informal, dated dilly
1.1Slightly or undefinably unwell or ill at ease: her head still felt strange...
- I just thought of her that way whilst writing that and have come over all strange and nauseous.
- My brain felt cloudy, and my stomach was doing a strange tingly thing that was making me feel quite nauseous.
- His face was falling closer and closer to mine and I felt that strange, dizzy feeling again.
Synonyms
ill, unwell, poorly, indisposed, not (very) well, not oneself, out of sorts, not up to par, under/below par, peaky, liverish, sick, queasy, nauseous;
British off, off colour
informal under the weather, not up to snuff, funny, peculiar, crummy, lousy, rough
British informal ropy, grotty
Scottish informal wabbit
Australian/New Zealand informal crook
vulgar slang crappy
dated queer, seedy
ill at ease, uneasy, edgy, uncomfortable, awkward, self-conscious, embarrassed;
out of place, like a fish out of water, disorientated
2Not previously visited, seen, or encountered; unfamiliar or alien: she was lost in a strange country a harsh accent that was strange to his ears...
- You can imagine an alien civilisation observing this strange scene and finding it fascinating or amusing.
- This is by no means strange and alien terrain for the Bank of England.
- Anyway, at the point I left the house there were no strange alien calls and it was still dark.
Synonyms
unfamiliar, unknown, new, alien, previously unencountered
2.1 (strange to/at/in) archaic Unaccustomed to or unfamiliar with: I am strange to the work...
- I smiled at him, feeling unfamiliar but not altogether strange in the compacted apartment.
- The land itself is not actually cold and brutal, it's just because I am strange to the land.
- I am strange to myself. I am here, as in a dream.
3 Physics (Of a subatomic particle) having a non-zero value for strangeness.The lightest particles containing a strange quark cannot decay by the strong interaction, and must instead decay via the much slower weak interaction....
- So with three strange quarks, the property which distinguishes them must be capable of at least three distinct values.
Phrases
strange to say (or literary tell)
Origin
Middle English: shortening of Old French estrange, from Latin extraneus 'external, strange'.
Strange is a shortening of Old French estrange, from Latin extraneus ‘external, strange’, also the source of stranger (Late Middle English).