abnormality

noun — 2 senses

abnormality

noun

UK /ˌæbnɔːˈmælɪtɪ/ · US /ˌæbˌnɔɹˈmæl.ət.i/

Etymology From abnormal + -ity. First attested in the mid 19th century.

1

The state or quality of being abnormal; variation; irregularity.

  • Taylor said that her fame makes her "sometimes" miss the normality of being able to hang out with friends but that she's had to get used to "the abnormality of my life".2015 May 26, “Taylor Swift: Pop stardom is made out to be harder than it is”, in BBC News:
2

Something abnormal; an aberration; an abnormal occurrence or feature.

  • I want a full genetic analysis. We're going to examine any abnormality we find no matter how insignificant it seems.1991, Brannon Braga, “Identity Crisis”, in Star Trek: The Next Generation, season 4, episode 18, spoken by Dr. Beverly Crusher (Gates McFadden):
  • The factors that filter out who “gets through” from conception to birth include chromosomal or genetic abnormalities of the fetus or the mother’s stress response to changes in her environment, Catalano said.2019 January 23, Susan Scutti, “Climate change will affect gender ratio among newborns, scientists say”, in CNN:
1 more example
  • Finally, there's also operational damage through impact energy from wheels hitting the rail. For that, Network Rail has another weapon in its armoury in the form of the Plain Line Pattern Recognition (PLPR) trains. These use geometry measurement and imaging to detect abnormalities such as missing or defective fastenings.2026 March 18, Peter Plisner, “Tackling broken rails: the skills and technology improving safety”, in RAIL, number 1057, pages 30-31:
Synonyms
abnormalcy, anomalousness, enormity, weirdness, aberrant, deviant, outlier
Antonyms
normality
Derived terms
haploabnormality, neuroabnormality
Related terms
abnormalcy, abnormalism, abnormity

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.