weird
/ˈwiɚd/adjective, noun, verb, adverb
weird is spelled W-E-I-R-D. The wrong spelling people search most is wierd: about 1,410 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 2 in 10 of all searches for the word. Weird is an adjective meaning “Having an unusually strange character or behaviour”.
How many letters and syllables are in weird?
| Letters | 5: W-E-I-R-D |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 65 times per million words; the 1,636th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 2; the most searched, wierd, about 1,410 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How do you spell weird?
Weird is spelled W-E-I-R-D. 2 wrong spellings are searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 2 in 10 of the searches for weird in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is weird?
Weird appears 65 times per million words in written English, the 1,636th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce weird?
- UK /ˈwɪə(ɹ)d/
- UK /ˈwiːə(ɹ)d/
- US /ˈwiɚd/
Weird has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-weird.ogg, En-au-weird.ogg, En-GB-weird.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with weird?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as weird (/iəɹd/).
Spelled with the same letters in another order: wired.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of weird
- weirder comparative
- weirdest superlative
- weyard
- weyward
- weirds plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- weirding participle, present
- weirded participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does weird mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Having an unusually strange character or behaviour.
There are lots of weird people in this place.
- 2
Deviating from the normal; bizarre.
It was quite weird to bump into all my ex-girlfriends on the same day.
- 3
Relating to weird fiction ("a macabre subgenre of speculative fiction").
a weird story
- 4
Belonging, pertaining, or related to fate, destiny, or to the Fates; able to influence fate.
- 5
Related to witches or witchcraft; supernatural; unearthly; suggestive of witches, witchcraft or unearthliness; uncanny; unearthly.
- 6
Having super- or preternatural power.
noun
- 1
archaicFate; destiny; luck.
- 2
A prediction.
- 3
ScotlandobsoleteA spell or charm.
- 4
That which comes to pass; a fact.
- 5
archaicThe Fates.
- 6
colloquialWeirdness.
verb
- 1
To destine; doom; change by witchcraft or sorcery.
- 2
To warn solemnly; adjure.
adverb
- 1
nonstandardIn a strange manner.
adjective
- 1
Acronym of Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic.
WEIRD societies
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Weird in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | bizarre, étrange |
| German | seltsam, komisch, eigenartig, merkwürdig |
| Portuguese | estranho , bizarro |
| Spanish | raro, cuático, anormal, bizarro |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does weird come from?
From Middle English werde, wierde, wirde, wyrede, wurde, from Old English wyrd (“fate”), from Proto-West Germanic *wurdi, from Proto-Germanic *wurdiz, from Proto-Indo-European *wert- (“to turn, wind”). Cognate with Icelandic urður (“fate”). Related to Old English weorþan (“to become”); more at worth (verb). Doublet of wyrd, a reborrowing of the original sense and spelling. Obsolete by the 16th century in English, it was reintroduced by Shakespeare, who borrowed Middle Scots weird as weyward in the name of the Weyward Sisters (later respelt as Weird Sisters), meaning “Sisters of Fate”.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).