weird

Less common meanings

5. 5
   horror fictionadjective

   Belonging to weird fiction, a branch of speculative fiction that deals in the macabre.

   Lovecraft's tales of ancient gods are among the best-known works of weird fiction.

   The anthology collects weird stories from the pulp magazines of the 1920s.

   UsageMostly in weird fiction and weird tales, naming the genre rather than judging the story.

   Similareerie, uncanny

   Note

   A genre label, not a judgment: a weird story belongs to a macabre branch of speculative fiction, whether or not anything in it strikes the reader as odd. Writers often fence the word off to show the genre is meant, as when the Dictionary of Literary Biography (1978) calls some of Ray Bradbury's pre-1946 tales "pure fantasy of the 'weird' sort." Keep it distinct from the everyday "strange" sense, which describes rather than classifies. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • Weird fiction is a macabre branch of speculative fiction. en.wikipedia.org
   • The cited volume of Dictionary of Literary Biography was published in 1978. lib.uchicago.edu
   • Dictionary of Literary Biography describes Bradbury stories using the quoted wording. en.wiktionary.org
   • Some stories covered by that description appeared before 1946. en.wiktionary.org
6. 6
   of fateadjectivearchaic

   Having to do with fate or destiny, or with the Fates who were believed to control it.

   Shakespeare took the weird sisters from Holinshed's chronicle, where they are described as goddesses of destiny.

   When the weird sisters hail Banquo as the father of future kings, the play hints that his line, not Macbeth's, is fated to rule.

   Note

   Here fate is a quality of things, or of the Fates who were thought to rule it. A weird path is one that destiny has laid down, and a weird power is one that can steer how a life turns out. It shares its archaic, poetic register with the noun for the Fates, and like it, it needs a mythic or ballad setting so the reader does not simply hear 'odd'. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 3 facts

   • The Fates were believed to govern human destiny. en.wikipedia.org
   • The historical adjective could describe power over destiny. en.wikipedia.org
   • Weird has an archaic plural noun sense referring to the Fates. en.wiktionary.org
7. 7
   the Fatesnounarchaicplural

   The Fates, personified as the three sisters who allot each person's destiny.

   Note

   Personification turns the noun into the goddesses themselves, and it lives in the plural: the Weirds, capitalized like a proper name. Their nearest counterparts are the Norns of Germanic myth, who also allot each person's lot. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • The personified plural noun denotes the Fates. en.wiktionary.org
   • The name is attested as the capitalized plural Weirds. en.wikisource.org
   • The Norns are corresponding fate-determining beings in Germanic mythology. en.wikipedia.org
8. 8
   nounarchaic

   Fate or destiny; the lot appointed to a person; luck.

   Step by reluctant step, he had come to know his weird. The North must be saved from her.

   1965, Poul Anderson, The Corridors of Time

   In the weird of death shall the hapless be whelmed, and from Doom’s dark prison Shall she steal forth never again.

   1912, Arthur S. Way, Medea

   Similarfate, destiny, fortune, doom, lot

   Note

   The noun at the root of the family: Old English wyrd, 'fate'. Poul Anderson's hero in The Corridors of Time (1965) comes 'to know his weird', and Arthur S. Way's 1894 translation of Euripides' Medea speaks of 'the weird of death'. Wyrd is its doublet, the same word revived in its Old English spelling. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 4 facts

   • Weird descends from Old English wyrd, meaning fate. en.wiktionary.org
   • Poul Anderson wrote The Corridors of Time, first published in 1965. en.wikipedia.org
   • The novel describes its hero coming to know his weird; this is narration, not spoken dialogue. en.wiktionary.org
   • Wyrd is a doublet of weird. en.wiktionary.org
9. 9
   magic charmnounobsoleteScotland

   A spell or charm worked by magic.

   Similarenchantment

   Note

   An obsolete Scottish use in which the spell and the doom it pronounces are one thing. Walter Scott's The Bridal of Triermain (1813) sentences a figure to lone penance in the Valley of Saint John and warns 'this weird shall overtake thee'. The charm is something that pursues its victim. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

   • Weird has an obsolete Scottish sense meaning a spell or charm. en.wiktionary.org
   • Walter Scott wrote The Bridal of Triermain. en.wikipedia.org
   • The poem was first published in 1813. walterscott.lib.ed.ac.uk
   • The poem condemns a figure to solitary penance in the Valley of Saint John and contains the quoted warning; Merlin speaks it to Gyneth. d.lib.rochester.edu
   • In this passage the weird is a magical doom pronounced upon someone, expressed as a countable noun. d.lib.rochester.edu
10. 10
    verbarchaic

    To destine or doom someone or something; to transform by witchcraft or sorcery.
11. 11
    noun

    A prediction; a foretelling of what is to come.
12. 12
    nounarchaic

    An event that actually comes to pass; a fact or real happening.
13. 13
    verbarchaic

    To warn solemnly; to charge or adjure someone earnestly.