Phrase guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
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noun
A sportive quality in Nature to which abnormal forms were formerly ascribed; a supposed capricious act of Nature regarded as the cause and origin of anomalies in a given organism.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: historical
Qualifier: originally
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
An organism exhibiting marked such deviation from the norm, seeming to be the result of sportive design; a freak of nature.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: countable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
a person or animal that is markedly unusual or deformed
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: freak, monster, monstrosity
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: mutant, mutation, variation, sport
Narrower terms: leviathan
History
Learned borrowing from Latin lūsus nātūrae (literally “sport of Nature”), from lūsus (“playing, sport”) + nātūrae (“of Nature”), genitive singular of nātūra (“Nature”). Originally used to explain fossils (pre-paleontology) or abnormalities such as two-headed snakes.
