idiosyncrasy
Syllables: idio·syn·crasyUK/ˌɪdɪəʊˈsɪŋkɹəsi/US/ˌɪdiəˈsɪŋkɹəsi/
idiosyncrasy noun: a behavior or way of thinking that is characteristic of a person or a group.
Noun
idiosyncrasy (plural idiosyncrasies)
- A behavior or way of thinking that is characteristic of a person or a group.
- This mode of death had been an idiosyncrasy with his family, for generations past; not often occurring, indeed, but, when it does occur, usually attacking individuals about the Judge’s time of life, and generally in the tension of some mental crisis, or, perhaps, in an access of wrath.1851 April 9, Nathaniel Hawthorne, The House of the Seven Gables, a Romance, Boston, Mass.: Ticknor, Reed, and Fields, →OCLC
- Every village has its idiosyncrasy, its constitution, often its own code of morality.1891, Thomas Hardy, Tess of the d’Urbervilles: A Pure Woman Faithfully Presented […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: James R[ipley] Osgood, McIlvaine and Co., […], →OCLC
- A peculiar individual reaction to a generally innocuous substance or factor; a risk factor.
- […]I have no antipathy, or rather Idio-ſyncraſie, in dyet, humour, ayre, any thing; […].1642, [Thomas Browne], “The Second Part”, in Religio Medici, London: […] Andrew Crooke, →OCLC, page 111
- There are, however, distinct differences between diatheses and idiosyncrasies; diatheses definitely tend to the development of disease, for example the scrofulous diathesis of our forebears favours the onset of tuberculosis; idiosyncrasies are abnormal reactions but do not necessarily dispose to...1927, Humphry Davy Rolleston, Idiosyncrasies, London: Kegan Paul, pages 16–17
- A peculiarity that serves to distinguish or identify.
- He mastered the idiosyncrasies of English spelling and speech.
idiosyncrasy meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
idiosyncrasy in Tamil
- தனிவிந்தை, தனித்தனம், தனிப்போக்கு, தனிவிலங்கின் சிறப்பியல் உடல்வாகு, தனிமுரண்பாடு, இயல்புக்கு மாறானவினை
idiosyncrasy in Urdu
- انفرادی مزاج, خبط, مخصوص عادت
idiosyncrasy in Bengali
- ব্যক্তির নিজস্ব অদ্ভুত আচরণ, বৈশিষ্ট্য
idiosyncrasy in Malayalam
- oddity, peculiarity, eccentricity
- വ്യക്തിസവിശേഷത, വെെയക്തികമായ സ്വഭാവം, പ്രത്യേകപ്രകൃതി, വ്യക്തിസ്വഭാവം, പ്രത്യേകത, അപൂർവ്വത
More languagesFewer languages
- idiosyncrasy in Kannada
- ವಿಶಿಷ್ಟ ಮಾನಸಿಕ ಪ್ರಕೃತಿ, ಜಾಯಮಾನ, ತನ್ಪಾಂಗು, ವೈಲಕ್ಷಣ್ಯ
- idiosyncrasy in Persian
- فردویژگی fard-vižegi
- idiosyncrasy in Vietnamese
- cá tính, cá biệt, đặc tính, đặc điểm
Examples of idiosyncrasy in a sentence
- If he expresses himself such as he is, an idiosyncrasy affected but not annihilated by education, he may say that his books are his own.1898 [1884], Philip Gilbert Hamerton, “Independence”, in Human Intercourse:
- When we situate climax during intercourse as the bullseye, we gate off the idiosyncrasy and experimentation that are the wellspring of sexual pleasure.2023 March 21, Zoe Williams, “The orgasm gap – and how to close it: ‘Don’t equate sex and penetration’”, in The Guardian, archived from the...
Synonyms of idiosyncrasy
Forms of idiosyncrasy
| plural | idiosyncrasies |
|---|
Origin of idiosyncrasy
First attested in 1604, in modern sense since 1665, from Ancient Greek ἰδιοσυγκρασία (idiosunkrasía, “one’s own temperament”), from ἴδιος (ídios, “one’s own”) + σύν (sún, “together”) + κρᾶσις (krâsis, “temperament”). By surface analysis, idio- + syn- + -crasy.
Words formed from idiosyncrasy
Questions about idiosyncrasy
- What does idiosyncrasy mean?
- Idiosyncrasy means a behavior or way of thinking that is characteristic of a person or a group.
- What is idiosyncrasy in Tamil?
- Idiosyncrasy in Tamil is தனிவிந்தை, தனித்தனம், தனிப்போக்கு. See Idiosyncrasy meaning in Tamil.
- How do you use idiosyncrasy in a sentence?
- If he expresses himself such as he is, an idiosyncrasy affected but not annihilated by education, he may say that his books are his own.
- What part of speech is idiosyncrasy?
- Idiosyncrasy is a noun.
- How do you pronounce idiosyncrasy?
- Idiosyncrasy is pronounced /ˌɪdɪəʊˈsɪŋkɹəsi/ (UK).
- What is the plural of idiosyncrasy?
- The plural of idiosyncrasy is idiosyncrasies.
Words near idiosyncrasy in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: idiosyncrasy (page history and authors); idiosyncrasy (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); idiosyncrasy (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); idiosyncrasy (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); idiosyncrasy (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); idiosyncrasy (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-idiosyncrasy.ogg.
Cite this entry: “idiosyncrasy.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/idiosyncrasy. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.