odd

Etymology

From Middle English od, odde (“odd, single”), from Old Norse oddi (“third or additional number, triangle”), from oddr (“point of a weapon”), from Proto-Germanic *uzdaz (“point”), from Proto-Indo-European *wes- (“to stick, prick, pierce, sting”) + Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to set, place”). Cognate with Icelandic oddi (“triangle, point of land, odd number”), Swedish udd (“a point”), Norwegian Bokmål odde (“a point”, “odd”, “peculiar”), Old English ord (“a point”). More at ord.

Pronunciation

• enPR: ŏd
• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɒd/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ɑd/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒd
• Rhymes: -ɑːd

Adjective

odd (not generally comparable, comparative odder, superlative oddest)

1. (not comparable) Single; sole; singular; not having a mate.

   Optimistically, he had a corner of a drawer for odd socks.

2. (obsolete) Singular in excellence; unique; sole; matchless; peerless; famous.
3. Singular in looks or character; peculiar; eccentric.
4. Strange, unusual.

   She slept in, which was very odd.

   • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 5, in The Celebrity:

     We made an odd party before the arrival of the Ten, particularly when the Celebrity dropped in for lunch or dinner. He could not be induced to remain permanently at Mohair because Miss Trevor was at Asquith, but he appropriated a Hempstead cart from the Mohair stables and made the trip sometimes twice in a day.

5. (not comparable) Occasional; infrequent.

   but for the odd exception

   • Sir Walter Scott, Guy Mannering – or The Astrologer

     I assure you, if I were Hazlewood I should look on his compliments, his bowings, his cloakings, his shawlings, and his handings with some little suspicion; and truly I think Hazlewood does so too at some odd times.

6. (not comparable) Left over, remaining when the rest have been grouped.

   I'm the odd one out.

7. (not comparable) Casual, irregular, not planned.

   He's only worked odd jobs.

8. (not comparable, in combination with a number) About, approximately.

   There were thirty-odd people in the room.

9. (not comparable) Not divisible by two; not even.

   The product of odd numbers is also odd.

10. Sporadic; scattered in frequency; occurring randomly

    I don't speak Latin well, so in hearing a dissertation in Latin, I would only be able to make out the odd word of it.

Noun

odd (plural odds)

1. (mathematics, diminutive) An odd number.

So let's see. There are two evens here and three odds.

External links

• Odd in the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica.

Anagrams

• DDO, DOD, DoD, dod

Noun

odd

1. indefinite accusative singular of oddur

Adjective

odd

1. Alternative form of od