Eccentricity

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Eccentricity \Ec`cen*tric"i*ty\, n.; pl. {Eccentricities}. [Cf.
     F. excentricit['e].]
     1. The state of being eccentric; deviation from the customary
        line of conduct; oddity.
        [1913 Webster]
  


     2. (Math.) The ratio of the distance between the center and
        the focus of an ellipse or hyperbola to its
        semi-transverse axis.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. (Astron.) The ratio of the distance of the center of the
        orbit of a heavenly body from the center of the body round
        which it revolves to the semi-transverse axis of the
        orbit.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. (Mech.) The distance of the center of figure of a body, as
        of an eccentric, from an axis about which it turns; the
        throw.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  eccentricity
       n 1: strange and unconventional behavior
       2: (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; "a circle is an ellipse with zero
          eccentricity"
       3: a circularity that has a different center or deviates from a
          circular path [ant: {concentricity}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  183 Moby Thesaurus words for "eccentricity":
     aberrance, aberrancy, aberration, abnormality, abnormity,
     absurdity, absurdness, amorphism, animus, anomalism, anomalousness,
     anomaly, aptitude, arrhythmia, asininity, battiness, bent, bias,
     bizarreness, bizarrerie, brainlessness, brokenness, buffoonery,
     capriciousness, cast, character, choppiness, clownishness,
     constitution, crackpottedness, crankiness, craziness, daffiness,
     derangement, desipience, desultoriness, deviability, deviation,
     diathesis, difference, disconnectedness, discontinuity,
     disposition, divergence, drollery, drollness, erraticism,
     erraticness, fatuity, fatuousness, fibrillation, fickleness,
     fitfulness, fits and starts, flightiness, fluctuation, folly,
     foolery, foolheadedness, foolishness, freakishness, frivolity,
     frivolousness, funniness, giddiness, goofiness, grain,
     heteromorphism, hilarity, humorousness, idiocy, idiosyncrasy,
     imbecility, impulsiveness, inanity, inclination, incongruity,
     inconsistency, inconstancy, individualism, ineptitude, inferiority,
     insanity, instability, intermittence, irregularity, jerkiness,
     kidney, laughability, leaning, ludicrousness, lunacy, madness,
     make, makeup, mental set, mercuriality, mettle, mind, mind-set,
     mindlessness, mold, monstrosity, moodiness, nature, niaiserie,
     nonuniformity, nugacity, nuttiness, patchiness, predilection,
     predisposition, preference, pricelessness, proclivity, propensity,
     quaintness, queerness, quizzicalness, restlessness, richness,
     ridiculousness, roughness, sappiness, screwiness, senselessness,
     set, shiftiness, silliness, slant, spasticity, sporadicity,
     sporadicness, spottiness, stagger, stamp, strain, streak, stripe,
     stupidity, subnormality, superiority, temper, temperament,
     tendency, teratism, the funny side, thoughtlessness, triflingness,
     triviality, turn, turn of mind, twist, type, uncertainty,
     undependability, unevenness, unfixedness, unmethodicalness,
     unnaturalism, unnaturalness, unpredictability, unreliability,
     unsettledness, unstableness, unsteadfastness, unsteadiness,
     unsystematicness, variability, variation, variety, wackiness,
     wantonness, warp, waywardness, weirdness, whimsicality,
     whimsicalness, witlessness, wittiness, wobble, zaniness, zanyism
  
  

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  ECCENTRICITY, n.  A method of distinction so cheap that fools employ
  it to accentuate their incapacity.