peculiarity
pronunciation
How to pronounce peculiarity in British English:
UK [pɪˌkju:liˈærəti]
How to pronounce peculiarity in American English:
US [pɪˌkjuliˈærɪti,-kjulˈjær-]
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- Noun:
- an odd or unusual characteristic
- a distinguishing trait
- something unusual -- perhaps worthy of collecting
Word Origin
- peculiarity (n.)
- c. 1600, "exclusive possession;" 1640s, "special characteristic," from peculiar + -ity, or else from Latin peculiaritas. Meaning "an oddity" is attested by 1777. Related: Peculiarities.
Example
- 1. The asian peculiarity is that marriage rates have been eroding during a long boom .
- 2. The trial is also likely to expose a procedural peculiarity over the role of witnesses .
- 3. His emphasis was on investment as the motor of the economy ; but influential us keynesians airily dismissed this as a peculiarity of keynes .
- 4. One peculiarity of massless particles is that they have to travel at the speed of light . That ( as einstein showed ) means that from the particle 's point of view time stands still and space contracts to nothingness .