Adjacent Words

Eccentricity definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

ECCENTRIC'ITY, n. Deviation from a center.
1. The state of having a center different from that of another circle.
2. In astronomy, the distance of the center of a planet's orbit from the center of the sun; that is, the distance between the center of an ellipsis and its focus.
3. Departure or deviation from that which is stated, regular or usual; as the eccentricity of a man's genius or conduct.
4. Excursion from the proper sphere.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: strange and unconventional behavior
2: (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"
3: a circularity that has a different center or deviates from a circular path [ant: concentricity]

Merriam Webster's

noun (plural -ties) Date: 1545 1. a. the quality or state of being eccentric b. deviation from an established pattern or norm; especially odd or whimsical behavior 2. a. a mathematical constant that for a given conic section is the ratio of the distances from any point of the conic section to a focus and the corresponding directrix b. the eccentricity of an astronomical orbit used as a measure of its deviation from circularity

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Eccentricity Ec`cen*tric"i*ty, n.; pl. Eccentricities. [Cf. F. excentricit['e].] 1. The state of being eccentric; deviation from the customary line of conduct; oddity. 2. (Math.) The ratio of the distance between the center and the focus of an ellipse or hyperbola to its semi-transverse axis. 3. (Astron.) The ratio of the distance of the center of the orbit of a heavenly body from the center of the body round which it revolves to the semi-transverse axis of the orbit. 4. (Mech.) The distance of the center of figure of a body, as of an eccentric, from an axis about which it turns; the throw.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(eccentricities) 1. Eccentricity is unusual behaviour that other people consider strange. She is unusual to the point of eccentricity. 2. Eccentricities are ways of behaving that people think are strange, or habits or opinions that are different from those of most people. We all have our eccentricities. = peculiarity N-COUNT: usu pl, oft with poss

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

n. 1. Deviation from circularity, ellipticity, oblateness, flatness, flattening. 2. Distance from centre to focus. 3. Irregularity, peculiarity, oddness, oddity, singularity, waywardness, strangeness, aberration.

Moby Thesaurus

aberrance, aberrancy, aberration, abnormality, abnormity, absurdity, absurdness, amorphism, animus, anomalism, anomalousness, anomaly, aptitude, arrhythmia, asininity, battiness, bent, bias, bizarreness, bizarrerie, brainlessness, brokenness, buffoonery, capriciousness, cast, character, choppiness, clownishness, constitution, crackpottedness, crankiness, craziness, daffiness, derangement, desipience, desultoriness, deviability, deviation, diathesis, difference, disconnectedness, discontinuity, disposition, divergence, drollery, drollness, erraticism, erraticness, fatuity, fatuousness, fibrillation, fickleness, fitfulness, fits and starts, flightiness, fluctuation, folly, foolery, foolheadedness, foolishness, freakishness, frivolity, frivolousness, funniness, giddiness, goofiness, grain, heteromorphism, hilarity, humorousness, idiocy, idiosyncrasy, imbecility, impulsiveness, inanity, inclination, incongruity, inconsistency, inconstancy, individualism, ineptitude, inferiority, insanity, instability, intermittence, irregularity, jerkiness, kidney, laughability, leaning, ludicrousness, lunacy, madness, make, makeup, mental set, mercuriality, mettle, mind, mind-set, mindlessness, mold, monstrosity, moodiness, nature, niaiserie, nonuniformity, nugacity, nuttiness, patchiness, predilection, predisposition, preference, pricelessness, proclivity, propensity, quaintness, queerness, quizzicalness, restlessness, richness, ridiculousness, roughness, sappiness, screwiness, senselessness, set, shiftiness, silliness, slant, spasticity, sporadicity, sporadicness, spottiness, stagger, stamp, strain, streak, stripe, stupidity, subnormality, superiority, temper, temperament, tendency, teratism, the funny side, thoughtlessness, triflingness, triviality, turn, turn of mind, twist, type, uncertainty, undependability, unevenness, unfixedness, unmethodicalness, unnaturalism, unnaturalness, unpredictability, unreliability, unsettledness, unstableness, unsteadfastness, unsteadiness, unsystematicness, variability, variation, variety, wackiness, wantonness, warp, waywardness, weirdness, whimsicality, whimsicalness, witlessness, wittiness, wobble, zaniness, zanyism