ECCENTRICITY • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Eccentricity

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/ˌɛksəntrˈɪsəti/ Listen

noun

Eccentricity n. (pl. eccentricities)

The state of being eccentric; deviation from the customary line of conduct; oddity.

(Math.) The ratio of the distance between the center and the focus of an ellipse or hyperbola to its semi-transverse axis.

(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.

(Mech.) The distance of the center of figure of a body, as of an eccentric, from an axis about which it turns; the throw.

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Etymology of 'Eccentricity'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Eccentricity" Quotes from Famous Books

... went to extremes. It was due to Gnosticism that art and science found an entrance into the Church. It preserved the Church from becoming stereotyped in form; but, built up entirely on ideas and not on historical facts, it died from its own hollowness and eccentricity. ...

— History Of Egypt From 330 B.C. To The Present Time, Volume 11 (of 12) • S. Rappoport

... was one of the most acute and learned bibliographers I have known. He was a man of marked individuality and independent views; with a spice of eccentricity and humor, which crept into all his catalogues, and made his notes highly entertaining reading. Besides his services to the British Museum Library, in building up its noble collection of Americana, and in whose rooms he labored for many years, with the aid of Panizzi and his successors, whom ...

— A Book for All Readers • Ainsworth Rand Spofford

... manner of doing things than this. But we have already said that Eaglenose was an eccentric youth; moreover, he was a Christian, and we do not feel bound to account for the conduct or sentiments of people who act under the combined influence of Christianity and eccentricity. ...

— The Prairie Chief • R.M. Ballantyne

... men call old Christy their "professor of equitation;" and in accounting for the appellation, they let me into some particulars of the Squire's mode of bringing up his children. There is an odd mixture of eccentricity and good sense in all the opinions of my worthy host. His mind is like modern Gothic, where plain brick-work is set off with pointed arches and quaint tracery. Though the main ground-work of his opinions is correct, ...

— Bracebridge Hall, or The Humorists • Washington Irving

... past, Madame Deberle had with passionate fervor devoted herself to foreign politics. Her ideas were very pronounced on the various eventualities which might arise; and Pauline greatly annoyed her by her eccentricity in advocating Russia's cause in opposition to the clear interests of France. Juliette's first desire was to convince her of her folly, but ...

— A Love Episode • Emile Zola

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