bizarre

English

Etymology

Borrowed from French bizarre (“odd, peculiar, bizarre”, formerly “headlong, angry”). Either from Basque bizar (“a beard”) (the notion being that bearded Spanish soldiers made a strange impression on the French), or from Italian bizzarro.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /bɪˈzɑː(ɹ)/, /bəˈzɑː(ɹ)/

  • Audio (UK)

    (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /bɪˈzɑɹ/, /bəˈzɑɹ/

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• Homophone: bazaar (weak vowel merger)

Adjective

bizarre (comparative more bizarre or bizarrer, superlative most bizarre or bizarrest)

1. Strangely unconventional; highly unusual and different from common experience, often in an extravagant, fantastic, and/or conspicuous way.

   His bizarre behaviour caused people to stare at him.

   • 2011 October 22, Sam Sheringham, “Aston Villa 1 - 2 West Brom”, in BBC Sport‎^[1]:

     West Brom enjoyed more possession as the half progressed and were handed a penalty of their own in the 21st minute in bizarre circumstances.

   • 2019 September 6, Jordan Weissman, “How Not to Fight Anti-Semitism”, in Slate‎^[2]:

     Unfortunately, she has used the attack as a launch pad for a bizarre and undercooked exercise in rhetorical bothsidesism, in which she argues that American Jews should be just as worried about college students who overzealously criticize Israel as they are about the aspiring Einsatzgruppen who shoot up shuls.

Usage notes

• The comparative and superlative forms with more and most are predominant. The alternative superlative bizarrest is fairly common, whereas the comparative bizarrer is very rare.

Synonyms

• See also Thesaurus:strange

Derived terms

• bizarrely
• bizarre magic
• bizarreness
• bizarro

 

Translations

strangely unconventional

• Bulgarian: странен (bg) (stranen), особен (bg) (osoben), чудат (bg) (čudat)
• Catalan: estrany (ca), estrafolari
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 奇怪 (zh) (qíguài), 不可思議／不可思议 (zh) (bùkěsīyì)

• Czech: bizarní (cs)
• Danish: bizar (da)
• Dutch: bizar (nl)
• Esperanto: bizara
• Finnish: outo (fi), eriskummallinen (fi), omituinen (fi)
• French: bizarre (fr)
• Galician: estrano, estraio, rechamante, zarapallón (gl), desavieso
• German: bizarr (de), komisch (de), seltsam (de)
• Hebrew: ביזארי‎ (he) (bizári), מוזר‎ (he) (muzár)
• Hungarian: bizarr (hu)
• Ido: bizara (io)
• Indonesian: aneh (id)
• Interlingua: bizarre
• Italian: bizzarro (it)
• Japanese: 奇妙 (ja) (きみょう, kimyō)
• Limburgish: biezar
• Maori: haraki, pakepakehā, pākehakeha
• Persian: عجیب و غریب‎ (fa) ('ajib o ğarib), طرفه‎ (fa) (torfe)
• Polish: dziwny (pl), cudaczny, arcydziwny (pl), przedziwny (pl)
• Portuguese: bizarro (pt), estranho (pt)
• Romanian: bizar (ro)
• Russian: неесте́ственный (ru) (nejestéstvennyj), ненорма́льный (ru) (nenormálʹnyj), причу́дливый (ru) (pričúdlivyj), стра́нный (ru) (stránnyj), эксцентри́чный (ru) (ekscentríčnyj), чудно́й (ru) (čudnój)
• Serbo-Croatian: bȉzāran (sh)
• Spanish: raro (es), extraño (es), estrafalario (es), bizarro (es) (proscribed)
• Swedish: bisarr (sv)
• Turkish: tuhaf (tr), acayip (tr), garip (tr)
• Vietnamese: kỳ quái (vi)

Further reading

• “bizarre”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “bizarre”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Brazier, brazier

Danish

Adjective

bizarre

1. definite of bizar
2. plural of bizar

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

bizarre

1. inflection of bizar:
   1. masculine/feminine singular attributive
   2. definite neuter singular attributive
   3. plural attributive

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Italian bizzarro.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bi.zaʁ/

• audio

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aʁ

Adjective

bizarre (plural bizarres)

1. bizarre, odd, strange, funny

   Je me sens bizarre.

   I feel strange.

   J’ai une impression bizarre de te connaître.

   I have a funny feeling I know you.

2. peculiar, quaint

Usage notes

• Bizarre can mean "bizarre" but it is also used for strange situations that are less extreme than would be connoted by "bizarre" in English.

Synonyms

• baroque
• étrange
• original
• singulier

Related terms

• bizarrement
• bizarrerie

Further reading

• “bizarre”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Anagrams

• barriez

German

Pronunciation

• Audio

  (file)

Adjective

bizarre

1. inflection of bizarr:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

Interlingua

Adjective

bizarre (comparative plus bizarre, superlative le plus bizarre)

1. bizarre