peculiarity

/pəˈkjulˌjɛrədi/

Other forms: peculiarities

Some characteristic or habit that's odd or distinctive is a peculiarity. Your brother's peculiarities might include always wearing a red knit hat, even in summer.

A peculiarity is a quirk or strange feature. You might be self conscious about the fact that your ears are uneven, something you think of as an obvious peculiarity. Another kind of peculiarity is a quality that is specific to someone or something: "One peculiarity of people from the Midwest is that they call soda pop." This "special characteristic" meaning is the original one, which makes sense given the Latin root, peculiaris, "of one's own."

Definitions of peculiarity

1. noun

   an odd or unusual characteristic
   synonyms: distinctive feature, distinguishing characteristic

   types:

   calling card

   a distinguishing characteristic or behavior

   type of:

   characteristic, feature

   a prominent attribute or aspect of something
2. noun

   a distinguishing trait
   synonyms: distinctiveness, speciality, specialness, specialty

   types:

   foible, idiosyncrasy, mannerism

   a minor weakness or peculiarity in someone's character

   type of:

   individualism, individuality, individuation

   the quality of being individual
3. noun

   something unusual, maybe worthy of collecting
   synonyms: curio, curiosity, oddity, oddment, rarity

   types:

   bric-a-brac, knickknack, knickknackery, nicknack, whatnot

   miscellaneous curios

   collectable, collectible

   things considered to be worth collecting (not necessarily valuable or antique)

   collector's item, piece de resistance, showpiece

   the outstanding item (the prize piece or main exhibit) in a collection

   chachka, tchotchke, tsatske, tshatshke

   (Yiddish) an inexpensive showy trinket

   rariora

   (plural) rare collector's items

   type of:

   object, physical object

   a tangible and visible entity; an entity that can cast a shadow