anomaly
Pluralanomalies
- 1Something that departs from what is normal, expected, or regular, such as an unusual event or measurement.
The losing streak was an anomaly in what had otherwise been the team's best season in years.
Lawmakers moved to close an anomaly in the pension rules that let part-time staff retire earlier than full-time workers.
UsageOften an anomaly in something, as in an anomaly in the rules; it suggests something to explain or fix.
Similarirregularity, aberration, oddity, exception, abnormality
- 2In biology, a defect or malformation in an organism or one of its parts.
Routine ultrasound can detect many anomalies of the kidneys before birth.
Researchers recorded a skeletal anomaly in several of the fossils.
UsageOften with an adjective or of: a congenital anomaly, anomalies of the kidneys.
Similarabnormality, malformation, defect
- 3Any of several angular distances used in astronomy.
At perihelion the comet's true anomaly is zero, and it grows as the comet swings outward.
The software converts the satellite's mean anomaly into a position along its orbit.
Note
Astronomers use these angles to say where a planet, comet or satellite is along its orbit, counting from its closest approach to the body it circles. The true anomaly is the actual angle; the mean anomaly is the angle it would have reached moving at a steady rate around a circle in the same period; the eccentric anomaly is a geometric step between the two.
Less common meaning
- 4In quantum theory, the failure of a symmetry that holds in the classical theory once quantum corrections are included.
Practice
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Origin
Ancient Greek homós ("same") gave homalós ("even"), and its negative anṓmalos ("irregular, uneven") produced anōmalía ("irregularity, anomaly"). Latin borrowed this as anomalia, the source of the English word.