bizarre

Borrowed from French bizarre (“odd, peculiar, bizarre”, formerly “headlong, angry”). Either from Basque bizar (“a beard”) (the notion being that bearded Spanish soldiers made a strange impression on the French), or from Italian bizzarro.

• (General American)
  • (weak vowel merger) IPA^(key): /bəˈzɑɹ/
  • (weak vowel distinction) IPA^(key): /bɪˈzɑɹ/
• (UK) IPA^(key): /bɪˈzɑː(ɹ)/, /bəˈzɑː(ɹ)/

• Audio (US):

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• Audio (UK):

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• Homophone: bazaar (weak vowel merger)

bizarre (comparative more bizarre or bizarrer, superlative most bizarre or bizarrest)

1. Strangely unconventional; highly unusual and different from common experience, often in an extravagant, fantastic, and/or conspicuous way.

   That was a bizarre adventure!

   • 1880, Mark Twain [pseudonym] (Samuel L[anghorne] Clemens), chapter XVII, in A Tramp Abroad; […], Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company; London: Chatto & Windus, →OCLC, pages 154–155:

     […] no, the abjectly unheroic nature of the death,—that was the sting,—that and the bizarre wording of the resulting obituary: “Shot with a rock, on a raft.”

   • 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula, Westminster [London]: Archibald Constable and Company, […], →OCLC:

     Strange as it all was, bizarre as it may hereafter seem even to us who felt its potent influence at the time, it comforted us much; and the silence, which showed Mrs. Harker’s coming relapse from her freedom of soul, did not seem so full of despair to any of us as we had dreaded.

   • 1899 (please specify the page), Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part:

     […] she had brass leggings to the knee, brass wire gauntlets to the elbow, a crimson spot on her tawny cheek, innumerable necklaces of glass beads on her neck; bizarre things, charms, gifts of witch-men, that hung about her, glittered and trembled at every step.

   • 1903 December 26, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist”, in The Return of Sherlock Holmes, New York, N.Y.: McClure, Phillips & Co., published February 1905, →OCLC:

     I confess that I had not up to now taken a very serious view of the case, which had seemed to me rather grotesque and bizarre than dangerous.

   • 1985, “A Love Bizarre”, in Romance 1600, performed by Sheila E. ft. Prince:

     That's what we are / We all want a love bizarre

   • 2011 October 22, Sam Sheringham, “Aston Villa 1 - 2 West Brom”, in BBC Sport‎^[1], archived from the original on 27 August 2025:

     West Brom enjoyed more possession as the half progressed and were handed a penalty of their own in the 21st minute in bizarre circumstances.

   • 2019 September 6, Jordan Weissman, “How Not to Fight Anti-Semitism”, in Slate‎^[2], archived from the original on 14 April 2021:

     Unfortunately, she has used the attack as a launch pad for a bizarre and undercooked exercise in rhetorical bothsidesism, in which she argues that American Jews should be just as worried about college students who overzealously criticize Israel as they are about the aspiring Einsatzgruppen who shoot up shuls.

• The comparative and superlative forms with more and most are predominant. The alternative superlative bizarrest is fairly common, whereas the comparative bizarrer is very rare.

• See also Thesaurus:strange

bizarre (plural bizarres)

1. (horticulture) Any of several types of flower with stripes of various colours.
   1. A carnation having stripes of two distinct colours on the white petals.
   2. A tulip with a certain pattern of various colored stripes.
      • 1890 [1889 January 1], Polman Mooy, quotee, “The Tulip, Its Origin and History: quoted within City Document No. 76 (1889): Annual Report of the Superintendent of Common and Public Grounds”, in Documents of the City of Boston, for the Year 1889. In Three Volumes. Published by Order of the City Council‎^[3], volume II: Containing Documents from No. 32 to No. 76, Inclusive, Boston, Massachusetts, USA: Rockwell and Churchill, page 38:

        Each tulip-grower who has broken seedlings claims and has a perfect right to give it a name; but some confusion naturally is caused by the fact that different names have been given to such that have broken almost exactly alike. In a bed of a hundred seedlings it is not probable that any two will be very nearly alike in their markings, which uncertainty adds greatly to the charms of tulip cultivation. The hope of obtaining something new in the markings and pencilling is a sufficient stimulant for the enthusiast to persevere in his labor of love until he has found one quite worthy of a name. Another singular feature in the tulip is, that after it breaks, it ever remains the same, and never returns to its self-color again. The show or fancy tulips are divided into three classes: 1. Bybloemen, or violets, such as have a white ground, variegated with purple or violet, the edges well feathered, the leaflets erect, and the whole forming a perfect cup. 2. Bizarres, having a yellow ground, variegated with rose, scarlet, purple, or violet. 3. Roses, with white ground color, variegated with rosy-red, pink, or soft rose.

• “bizarre”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “bizarre”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

• Brazier, brazier

bizarre

1. definite of bizar
2. plural of bizar

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bizarre

1. inflection of bizar:
   1. masculine/feminine singular attributive
   2. definite neuter singular attributive
   3. plural attributive

Borrowed from Italian bizzarro.

• IPA^(key): /bi.zaʁ/

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• Rhymes: -aʁ

bizarre (plural bizarres)

1. bizarre, odd, strange, funny

   Je me sens bizarre.

   I feel strange.

   J'ai une impression bizarre de te connaître.

   I have a funny feeling I know you.

2. peculiar, quaint

• Bizarre can mean "bizarre" but it is also used for strange situations that are less extreme than would be connoted by "bizarre" in English.

• baroque
• étrange
• original
• singulier

• bizarrement
• bizarrerie

• “bizarre”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

• barriez

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bizarre

1. inflection of bizarr:
   1. strong/mixed nominative/accusative feminine singular
   2. strong nominative/accusative plural
   3. weak nominative all-gender singular
   4. weak accusative feminine/neuter singular

bizarre (comparative plus bizarre, superlative le plus bizarre)

1. bizarre