4 definitions found From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]: Eccentricity \Ec'cen*tric"i*ty\, noun; pl. {Eccentricities}. [Cf. F. excentricit['e].] 1. The state of being eccentric; deviation from the customary line of conduct; oddity. 2. (Math.) The ratio of the distance between the center and the focus of an ellipse or hyperbola to its semi-transverse axis. 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. 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. From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]: eccentricity noun 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, noun A method of distinction so cheap that fools employ it to accentuate their incapacity.

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