Weird means strange, unusual, or difficult to explain in a way that makes you feel slightly uncomfortable or unsettled. When something is weird, it doesn't quite fit your expectations of how things should be. A weird noise in the middle of the night might make you pause and wonder what caused it. A weird dream leaves you puzzled when you wake up because its events made no logical sense.

The feeling of weirdness is different from simple surprise. If your friend shows up wearing a Halloween costume in April, that's weird. If they show up wearing a nice new jacket, that's just different. Weird suggests something is off somehow, even if you can't put your finger on exactly what's wrong.

People sometimes call others weird as an insult, meaning they don't act like everyone else. But many interesting, creative people are considered weird simply because they think differently or have unusual interests. Scientists who spent their careers studying slime molds or philosophers who pondered strange questions were often called weird by their neighbors, yet their unusual thinking led to important discoveries.