oddly

English

Etymology

From Middle English oddely, odly, equivalent to odd +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈɑdli/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈɒdli/

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒdli

Adverb

oddly (not comparable)

1. In a peculiar manner; strangely; unusually.

   Synonyms: queerly, curiously

   For December, it was oddly warm.

   • 1740, Colley Cibber, chapter I, in An Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber, […], London: […] John Watts for the author, →OCLC, page 3:

     Novv, Sir, vvhen my Time comes, leſt they ſhou'd think it vvorth vvhile to handle my Memory vvith the ſame Freedom, I am vvilling to prevent its being ſo odly beſmear'd (or at beſt but flatly vvhite-vvash'd) by taking upon me to give the Publick This, as true a Picture of myſelf as natural Vanity vvill permit me to dravv; […]

2. In a manner measured by an odd number.
   • 1998, Kay Almere Read, Time and Sacrifice in the Aztec Cosmos, page 107:

     The oddly counted lords are always out of sync with at least one other evenly counted cycle. These two strange counts assured that at no single moment could all cycles end at the same time for an extraordinarily long time, for at least one odd count threw off all the even ones.

Translations

strangely

• Catalan: estranyament (ca), anòmalament (ca), sorprenentment, inexplicablement
• Esperanto: strange
• French: étrangement (fr)
• Ido: bizare, stranje
• Spanish: extrañamente (es), curiosamente (es), sorprendentemente, anómalamente, inexplicablemente (es)

in an odd number