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Shakespeare's Connection to Weird
You may know weird as a generalized term describing something unusual, but this word also has older meanings that are more specific. Weird derives from the Old English noun wyrd, essentially meaning "fate." By the 8th century, the plural wyrde had begun to appear in texts as a gloss for Parcae, the Latin name for the Fates—three goddesses who spun, measured, and cut the thread of life. In the 15th and 16th centuries, Scots authors employed werd or weird in the phrase "weird sisters" to refer to the Fates. William Shakespeare adopted this usage in Macbeth, in which the "weird sisters" are depicted as three witches. Subsequent adjectival use of weird grew out of a reinterpretation of the weird used by Shakespeare.
Synonyms
Adjective
Examples of weird in a Sentence
Steve Nadis, Astronomy, October 2005
If you looked at them closely you realized they were carved with weird, pagan creatures, more like hobgoblins than men, half hidden among trees and leaves—here acanthus and there what looked like a palm tree.
—Kate Atkinson, Case Histories, 2004
As an extended fictional device allegory is used mainly in didactic, satirical fables, such as Gulliver's Travels, Animal Farm and Erewhon. In these masterpieces a surface realism of presentation gives the fantastic events a kind of weird plausibility …
—David Lodge, The Art of Fiction, 1992
My little brother acts weird sometimes.
I heard a weird noise.
That's weird—I put my book down right here just a few minutes ago and now it's gone.
Adriane Quinlan, Curbed, 14 Nov. 2024
He is represented by no gallery, and works in a basement in Brooklyn, from which emerges the fruits of his weird obsessions.
—Jerry Saltz, Vulture, 13 Nov. 2024
Here are a few of the strangest ways in which people still forecast long-term weather—ranked from least to most weird.
—Corey Buhay, Outside Online, 7 Nov. 2024
There’s often a threshold for how weird something can sound beyond which most people stop taking it seriously.
—Oshan Jarow, Vox, 4 Nov. 2024
See all Example Sentences for weird 
Dictionary Entries Near weird
Cite this Entry
“Weird.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/weird. Accessed 25 Nov. 2024.
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