ECCENTRIC

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does eccentric mean? 

• ECCENTRIC (noun)
  The noun ECCENTRIC has 2 senses:

1. a person with an unusual or odd personality

2. a person of a specified kind (usually with many eccentricities)

  Familiarity information: ECCENTRIC used as a noun is rare.

• ECCENTRIC (adjective)
  The adjective ECCENTRIC has 2 senses:

1. conspicuously or grossly unconventional or unusual

2. not having a common center; not concentric

  Familiarity information: ECCENTRIC used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ECCENTRIC (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A person with an unusual or odd personality

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

eccentric; eccentric person; flake; geek; oddball

Hypernyms ("eccentric" is a kind of...):

individual; mortal; person; somebody; someone; soul (a human being)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "eccentric"):

crackpot; crank; fruitcake; nut; nut case; screwball (a whimsically eccentric person)

nutter; wacko; whacko (a person who is regarded as eccentric or mad)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A person of a specified kind (usually with many eccentricities)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

case; character; eccentric; type

Context example:

a mental case

Hypernyms ("eccentric" is a kind of...):

adult; grownup (a fully developed person from maturity onward)

• ECCENTRIC (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Conspicuously or grossly unconventional or unusual

Synonyms:

bizarre; eccentric; flakey; flaky; freakish; freaky; gonzo; off-the-wall; outlandish; outre

Context example:

outre and affected stage antics

Similar:

unconventional (not conventional or conformist)

Derivation:

eccentricity (strange and unconventional behavior)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Not having a common center; not concentric

Synonyms:

eccentric; nonconcentric

Context example:

eccentric circles

Similar:

acentric (not centered or having no center)

off-center; off-centered (situated away from the center or axis)

Antonym:

concentric (having a common center)

Derivation:

eccentricity (a circularity that has a different center or deviates from a circular path)

eccentricity ((geometry) a ratio describing the shape of a conic section; the ratio of the distance between the foci to the length of the major axis)

 Context examples 

Instead, these moons have eccentric (slightly oval-shaped) orbits, which raise daily tides that flex the interior and stress the surface.

(Cracks in Pluto's moon could indicate it once had an underground ocean, NASA)

It is characterized by the presence of cells with a large eccentric nucleus, prominent nucleolus, and abundant cytoplasm.

(Extrarenal Rhabdoid Tumor, NCI Thesaurus)

This is a tell-tale sign that the dwarf galaxy came in on a really eccentric orbit and its fate was sealed.

(The Gaia Sausage: the major collision that changed the Milky Way, University of Cambridge)

But there have been inventors who were not eccentric and who starved while they sought to invent practical things; and sometimes, it is recorded, they succeeded.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

He has had the reputation of being a man of eccentric habits, secretive and retiring.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The other bounded round in an eccentric circle with shrill, wailing cries, and then lying down writhed in agony for some minutes before it also stiffened and lay still.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

She was extremely concerned; for, though very eccentric, he had a thousand good qualities.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

A mononuclear cell slightly larger than a small lymphocyte with an eccentric dark nucleus.

(Lymphoplasmacytoid Cell, NCI Thesaurus)

A population of large-sized lymphocytes found in human peripheral blood with slightly eccentric nuclei and abundant cytoplasmic azurophilic granules.

(Large granular lymphocyte, NCI Thesaurus)

I am afraid your principles on some points are eccentric.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)