Meaning & use
oddness
Last updated
Meanings
noununcountable
The quality of being strange, unusual or hard to explain.
Grammar: Normally uncountable: the oddness of the story, not an oddness of the story.
Patterns
- the oddness of something
- a sense of oddness
Nobody could explain the oddness of the silence in the house.
She felt a strange oddness about the way he smiled.
The oddness of the situation made us all laugh nervously.
noununcountablemathematicstechnical
In mathematics, the property of a whole number that cannot be divided exactly by two.
Grammar: Uncountable and technical: the oddness of a number, usually described as its parity.
Patterns
- the oddness of a number
The test depends on the oddness of the final digit.
Students are asked to prove the oddness of the sum.
The oddness of 7 means it leaves a remainder when halved.
Common combinations
- a certain oddness
- There was a certain oddness in the way the shop was arranged.
- sense of oddness
- A sense of oddness hung over the whole town.
- the oddness of life
- He wrote about the oddness of life in small villages.
- strike someone with its oddness
- The painting struck me with its oddness at first.
Synonyms and how they differ
- strangeness
- Strangeness is the closest synonym and slightly more common; it can also suggest unfamiliarity, as in a strange place.
- peculiarity
- Peculiarity often means a specific odd feature or habit, which can be counted, while oddness is the general quality.
- weirdness
- Weirdness is informal and often stronger, with a creepy or bizarre feeling.
- eccentricity
- Eccentricity is used for odd behavior in people, often harmless or charming.
Opposites
Word family
Commonly confused: oddness or oddity?
oddness vs oddity
An oddity is a particular strange thing or person and can be counted. Oddness is the abstract quality itself.
Practice
What does the noun oddness mean in 'the oddness of the silence'?
Choose one answer.
Oddness means the quality of being strange, so the phrase says the silence felt strange. Peacefulness would be a good feeling, which oddness does not suggest.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “oddness”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.