adj
Meaning 1
Exotic, not mainstream.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: not-comparable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
oddball
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.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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US: /ˈɑːdˌbɔl/
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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rhymes with -ɑːdbɔl
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CMU ARPABET: AA1 D B AO2 L Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
noun
Meaning 2
An eccentric or unusual person.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
A deviant stimulus that appears among repetitive stimuli during an experiment, to trigger an event-related potential in the participant.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: medicine, neuroscience, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
a person with an unusual or odd personality
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: eccentric, eccentric person, flake, geek
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: anomaly, unusual person
Narrower terms: crackpot, crank, nut, nut case, fruitcake, screwball, nutter, wacko, whacko
History
Etymology
Compound of odd + ball. First used in late 1930s, describing an extra ball played as a bonus in pin-ball type games. Well-attested since the 1940s, with the adjective appearing earlier than the noun.
Across languages
Translations
41 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Bulgarian: ексцентричен (ekscentričen) — exotic, not mainstream
- Czech: zvláštní — exotic, not mainstream
- Czech: divný — exotic, not mainstream
- Czech: podivný — exotic, not mainstream
- Czech: ujetý — exotic, not mainstream
- Māori: whanokē — exotic, not mainstream
- Polish: osobliwy — exotic, not mainstream
- Polish: nietuzinkowy — exotic, not mainstream
- Spanish: estrafalario — exotic, not mainstream
- Bulgarian: чудак (čudak) — eccentric person
- Bulgarian: чешит (češit) — eccentric person
- Chichewa: mphakula — eccentric person
- Chinese Mandarin: 怪人 (guàirén) — eccentric person
- Czech: podivín — eccentric person
- Czech: excentrik — eccentric person
- Dutch: kwast — eccentric person
- French: excentrique — eccentric person
- French: olibrius — eccentric person
- German: Sonderling — eccentric person
- German: Exzentriker — eccentric person
- Hungarian: csodabogár — eccentric person
- Hungarian: különc — eccentric person
- Indonesian: miring — eccentric person
- Ingrian: cudakka — eccentric person
- Italian: sagoma — eccentric person
- Italian: tomo — eccentric person
- Japanese: 変人 (henjin) — eccentric person
- Macedonian: чу́дак (čúdak) — eccentric person
- Māori: whanokē — eccentric person
- Māori: korokē — eccentric person
- Norwegian: eksentriker — eccentric person
- Plautdietsch: Jräp — eccentric person
- Polish: dziwak — eccentric person
- Portuguese: excêntrico — eccentric person
- Romanian: ciudat — eccentric person
- Russian: сумасбро́д (sumasbród) — eccentric person
- Russian: чуда́к (čudák) — eccentric person
- Russian: эксце́нтрик (ekscéntrik) — eccentric person
- Slovak: čudák — eccentric person
- Spanish: estrafalario — eccentric person
- Swedish: kuf — eccentric person