abnormal

[ ab-nawr-muhl ]

adjective

1. not normal, average, typical, or usual; deviating from a standard:

   abnormal powers of concentration; an abnormal amount of snow; abnormal behavior.

   Synonyms: odd, unnatural, deviant, irregular, aberrant, anomalous

2. extremely or excessively large:

   abnormal profit.

abnormal

/ æbˈnɔːməl /

adjective

1. not normal; deviating from the usual or typical; extraordinary
2. informal.
   odd in behaviour or appearance; strange

Derived Forms

• abˈnormally, adverb

Other Words From

• ab·normal·ly adverb
• ab·normal·ness noun
• super·ab·normal adjective
• super·ab·normal·ly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of abnormal¹

First recorded in 1850–55; ab- + normal; replacing anormal, from Medieval Latin anōrmālus, variant of anōmālus anomalous, influenced by Latin norma norm

Word History and Origins

Origin of abnormal¹

C19: ab- ¹+ normal , replacing earlier anormal from Medieval Latin anormalus, a blend of Late Latin anōmalus anomalous + Latin abnormis departing from a rule

Synonym Study

See irregular.

Example Sentences

The next year, China banned “sissy men and other abnormal aesthetics” from broadcast television.

From Los Angeles Times

“Some of the instruments for the future spacecraft are very much being designed with ideas from what we learned from Voyager 2 when it flew past the system when it was experiencing an abnormal event. So we need to rethink how exactly we are going to design the instruments on the new mission so that we can best capture the science we need to make discoveries”.

From BBC

Except it wasn’t odd for him — just abnormal compared with the previous 10 California governors going back 82 years.

From Los Angeles Times

These abnormal times have made Trump and Harris not “just” politicians.

From Salon

But in the near-decade that Trump has been at the center of our presidential politics, the abnormal has become the norm.

From Slate

Related Words

• aberrant
• anomalous
• atypical
• bizarre
• exceptional
• extraordinary
• irregular
• odd
• peculiar
• strange
• uncommon
• unexpected
• unnatural
• unusual
• weird