eccentricity
eccentricity — noun
- eccentricitysingular
- eccentricitiesplural
1. how noticeably unusual a person's behaviour, dress, or thinking appears when com
how noticeably unusual a person's behaviour, dress, or thinking appears when compared with what most people consider normal or conventional
Oliver's gentle eccentricity made him beloved, even though he kept twenty cats in one small flat.
The actress was famous for her eccentricity, often wearing outfits that looked like works of art.
collocation: famous for + eccentricity
Hassan's eccentricity was a quiet form of rebellion that his coworkers secretly admired.
A fine line often separates genius from eccentricity, especially in the arts and sciences.
- unconventionality
focuses on breaking social norms rather than oddness
- peculiarity
slightly milder; suggests something distinctive rather than strange
- oddness
more informal and direct; less formal than eccentricity
- normality
the state of being ordinary and expected
- conventionality
following accepted customs and standards
用法筆記
This sense is uncountable and refers to a general quality or tendency. For specific odd habits, see sense 2 (countable).
常見錯誤
2. a specific habit, action, or way of behaving that most people would find strange
a specific habit, action, or way of behaving that most people would find strange or unusual
One of Diego's eccentricities was that he read books upside down because it improved his concentration.
grammar pattern: one of + possessive + eccentricities + was that-clause
Clara's eccentricities included wearing vintage sunglasses indoors and speaking to her plants in French.
The old professor had many eccentricities, but his students found them endearing rather than annoying.
Amin refused to give up his eccentricity of drinking tea from a ceramic eggcup at breakfast.
- quirk
lighter and more informal; suggests a harmless odd habit
- idiosyncrasy
slightly more formal; suggests a distinctive personal trait
- oddity
emphasises how unusual the habit is
用法筆記
Countable — often appears in the plural (eccentricities) when listing several unusual habits of the same person. Not typically used in formal academic writing.
常見錯誤
3. a mathematical value between 0 and 1 that measures how much an orbit or a geomet
a mathematical value between 0 and 1 that measures how much an orbit or a geometric shape, such as an ellipse, deviates from being a perfect circle
A perfect circle has an eccentricity of zero, while a stretched orbital path has a value near one.
domain-specific usage: eccentricity of zero / close to one
Nadia calculated the comet's orbital eccentricity and found it travels very far from the Sun.
The eccentricity of Mars' orbit exceeds Earth's, making the Martian seasons more uneven in length.
In geometry class, Taro calculated an ellipse's eccentricity from its major and minor axes.
- non-circularity
describes the property in simple terms but is not a standard technical term
- ellipticity
sometimes used interchangeably for ellipses, though technically different
- circularity
the property of being perfectly round; eccentricity of 0
用法筆記
A formal technical term. In astronomy, eccentricity values range from 0 (perfect circle) to 1 (parabolic escape orbit). In geometry, it describes any conic section.