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oddball. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
oddball, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
oddball in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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English
Etymology
Compound of odd + ball. Attested since the 1940s, with the adjective appearing earlier than the noun.
Pronunciation
Noun
oddball (plural oddballs)
- An eccentric or unusual person.
1964, Earl Warren et al., Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy, page 685:Miss Quinn thought that Oswald spoke Russian well in view of his lack of formal training; she found the evening uninteresting. Donovan, with whom she had a date later, testified that she told him that Oswald was “kind of an oddball.”
1989, Maris Soule, Storybook Hero, page 5:"She's different, mister. A real oddball, if you know what I mean. But your little girl would love her. All kids love the Doll Lady."
- (neuroscience) A deviant stimulus that appears among repetitive stimuli during an experiment, to trigger an event-related potential in the participant.
Synonyms
Translations
Adjective
oddball (not comparable)
- Exotic, not mainstream.
1984, Steven K. Roberts, The Complete Guide to Microsystem Management:An oddball word processor, for example, might never be supported by such helpful tools as spelling checkers, indexing programs, footnote utilities,...
Translations