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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

odd.

Differing from what is usual, ordinary or expected.

3 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adj/ɒd/Northern-England, Received-Pronunciation, Wales/ɔd/Australia, British, Scotland, Southern, Standard/ɑd/General-American/ɒd/New-Zealand
  1. Differing from what is usual, ordinary or expected.

    not-comparable · usually
    She slept in, which was very odd.
  2. Differing from what is usual, ordinary or expected. Peculiar, singular and strange in looks or character; eccentric, bizarre.

    not-comparable · usually
  3. Without a corresponding mate in a pair or set; unmatched; (of a pair or set) mismatched.

    not-comparable · usually
    Optimistically, he had a corner of a drawer for odd socks.
    My cat Fluffy has odd eyes: one blue and one brown.
  4. Left over, remaining after the rest have been paired or grouped.

    not-comparable · usually
    I'm the odd one out.
  5. Left over or remaining (as a small amount) after counting, payment, etc.

    not-comparable · usually
  6. Scattered; occasional, infrequent; not forming part of a set or pattern.

    not-comparable · usually
    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.
    but for the odd exception
  7. Not regular or planned.

    not-comparable · usually
    He's only worked odd jobs.
  8. Used or employed for odd jobs.

    not-comparable · usually
  9. Numerically indivisible by two.

    not-comparable · usually
    The product of two odd numbers is also odd.
  10. Numbered with an odd number.

    not-comparable · usually
    How do I print only the odd pages?
  11. About, approximately; somewhat more than (an approximated round number).

    in-compounds · not-comparable · usually
    There were thirty-odd people in the room.
  12. Out of the way, secluded.

    not-comparable · usually
  13. On the left.

    not-comparable · usually
    He served from the odd court.
  14. Singular in excellence; matchless; peerless; outstanding.

    not-comparable · obsolete · usually
Where this word comes from

From Middle English odde, od (“odd (not even); leftover after division into pairs”), from Old Norse oddi (“odd, 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”) + *dʰeh₁- (“to set, place”). Cognate to Icelandic oddi (“triangle, point of land, odd number”), Swedish udda (“odd”), udd (“a point”), Danish od (“point of weapon”) and odde (“a headland, point”), Norwegian Bokmål odde (“a point”, “odd”, “peculiar”); related to Old English ord (“a point”). Doublet of ord ("point").

noun/ɒd/Northern-England, Received-Pronunciation, Wales/ɔd/Australia, British, Scotland, Southern, Standard/ɑd/General-American/ɒd/New-Zealand
  1. Something left over, not forming part of a set.

    informal
    I’ve got three complete sets of these trading cards for sale, plus a few dozen odds.
  2. An odd number.

    diminutive
    So let’s see. There are two evens here and three odds.
Where this word comes from

From Middle English odde, od (“odd (not even); leftover after division into pairs”), from Old Norse oddi (“odd, 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”) + *dʰeh₁- (“to set, place”). Cognate to Icelandic oddi (“triangle, point of land, odd number”), Swedish udda (“odd”), udd (“a point”), Danish od (“point of weapon”) and odde (“a headland, point”), Norwegian Bokmål odde (“a point”, “odd”, “peculiar”); related to Old English ord (“a point”). Doublet of ord ("point").

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.