# odd

Pronunciation: say "OD" US /ɑd/, UK /ɒd/

## Adjective

1. Peculiar or eccentric in appearance or character; bizarre.
   - Simple: Strange in the way someone looks or acts.
   - _Adam usually wore odd leather clothes and said little._
   - _The professor was a brilliant but odd man who lectured to his cat._
2. In mathematics, not divisible by two.
   - Simple: Not able to be divided into two equal whole numbers, like 3 or 7.
   - _Every odd house number on our street is on the left side._
   - _If we have an odd number of players, someone will have to sit out._
3. Having no matching partner in a pair or set, or containing items that do not match each other.
   - Simple: Not matching, or without its partner in a pair.
   - _I found an odd glove under the car seat, but never the other one._
   - _The inventory lists one odd back for a suit of light armor._
4. Kept or used for a variety of small tasks as needed.
   - Simple: Kept for small, mixed jobs, such as a spare horse on a farm.
   - _The odd horse carts hay to the sheep and roots to the cattle in the yards._
   - _He spent the summer doing odd jobs around the neighborhood for cash._
5. Combined with a round number, about or somewhat more than the number stated.
   - Simple: Added to a round number to mean a little more than that number.
   - _Some forty-odd years later the letters turned up in an attic._
   - _The company employs two hundred-odd people across three sites._
6. Occurring here and there or now and then, rather than as part of a set or pattern.
   - Simple: Found here and there or now and then, not as part of a set or regular pattern.
   - _Odd bits of litter lay along the trail, but nothing like the heaps near the parking lot._
   - _Over the years he picked up the odd phrase of Portuguese from the dockworkers, never enough to hold a conversation._
7. Not part of any pair or group once the rest have been sorted, and so left over.
   - Simple: Left over when everyone or everything else has been put in pairs or groups.
   - _I'm the odd one out in a family of engineers._
   - _Sort the gloves into pairs and put any odd ones in the box._
8. Forming a small leftover amount after a sum has been counted, paid, or settled.
   - Simple: Left over as a small extra amount after counting or paying.
   - _After paying for groceries, he dropped the odd coins into the charity box._
   - _The loan was five thousand dollars and some odd change._
9. Not regular or planned; casual.
   - Simple: Not regular or planned.
   - _Between contracts he took odd jobs to keep the rent paid._
   - _The shop opens at odd times, whenever the owner feels like it._
10. Strange or surprising because it departs from what is normal or expected.
   - Simple: Different from what is normal or expected.
   - _It was odd to see the shop shut on a Saturday, its busiest day._
   - _Everyone found it odd that the mayor walked out halfway through his own speech._
11. Bearing an odd number in a numbered series.
   - Simple: Having an odd number, such as 1, 3, or 5.
   - _Students in the odd seats take version A of the exam, and the rest take version B._
   - _The notes are printed on the odd pages, facing the text on the even ones._
14. Out of the way; secluded.
   - Simple: Far away from other places and hard to find.
   - _They found a quiet cafe tucked away in an odd corner of the old town._
   - _Stuff the bulbs into an odd corner of a flower bed and forget them until spring._
15. In sports, on the left; designating the left-hand service court.
   - Simple: In some racket sports, on the left side of the court.
   - _Points served from the odd court are the ones that decide close games, the coach said._
   - _Serve from the odd court whenever your score is an odd number._

## Noun

12. In mathematics, an odd number: an informal shortening.
   - Simple: A number that cannot be split into two equal whole numbers.
   - _Circle all the odds in this list, then add them together._
   - _Adding an odd to an even always gives an odd._
13. Something left over that does not form part of a set. *(colloquial)*
   - Simple: A thing left over that does not belong to a set.
   - _The dealer sold complete sets at one price and the odds by the handful._
   - _Every collection ends with a box of odds nobody can place._

## Adjective

16. Singular in excellence; matchless; peerless, obsolete. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: In old use, better than all others.

## Origin

"Odd" comes from Middle English "odde," meaning not even or left over after dividing into pairs, from Old Norse "oddi" (an odd or third number, a triangle), which came from "oddr" meaning the point of a weapon. It traces back through Proto-Germanic and Proto-Indo-European roots meaning to prick or pierce, and is related to Old English "ord" (a point).

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/odd (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).