eccentricity

/ˈɛkˈsɛnˌtrɪsədi/

Other forms: eccentricities

Eccentricity is strange, out-of-the-ordinary, sometimes weirdly attractive behavior or dress. Sleeping with your boots on is pretty normal if you're a cowboy, but leaving them on for bedtime in your city apartment, that shows some eccentricity.

Eccentricity goes back to the Greek ekkentros, meaning "off center," and when you describe people as being a little "off," you might be talking about their eccentricity or behavior that's a bit abnormal. An eccentricity might be some really small character trait, like eating all of the green food on your plate first, or a large and very obvious characteristic, as when you ride a donkey to your suburban school instead of taking the bus.

Definitions of eccentricity

1. noun

   strange and unconventional behavior
   types:

   oddity, oddness

   eccentricity that is not easily explained

   type of:

   strangeness, unfamiliarity

   unusualness as a consequence of not being well known
2. noun

   a circularity that has a different center or deviates from a circular path
   antonyms:

   concentricity

   the quality of having the same center (as circles inside one another)

   type of:

   circularity, disk shape

   the roundness of a 2-dimensional figure
3. noun

   (geometry) a ratio describing the shape of a conic section; the ratio of the distance between the foci to the length of the major axis
   “a circle is an ellipse with zero eccentricity”

   type of:

   ratio

   the relative magnitudes of two quantities (usually expressed as a quotient)