Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Definition: Abnormal |
AbnormalAdjective1. Not normal; not typical or usual or regular or conforming to a norm; "abnormal powers of concentration"; "abnormal amounts of rain"; "abnormal circumstances"; "an abnormal interest in food". 2. (psychology) departing from the normal in e.g. intelligence and development; "they were heartbroken when they learned their child was abnormal"; "an abnormal personality". 3. Much greater than the normal; "abnormal profits"; "abnormal ambition". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "abnormal" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1835. (references) |
Etymology: Abnormal \Ab*nor"mal\, adjective. [For earlier anormal. French anormal, Late Latin expression anormalus for anomalus. Confused with Latin abnormis. See Anomalous, Abnormous, Anormal.]. (references) |
| Domain | Definition |
Satire | ABNORMAL, adj. Not conforming to standard. In matters of thought and conduct, to be independent is to be abnormal, to be abnormal is to be detested. Wherefore the lexicographer adviseth a striving toward the straiter [sic] resemblance of the Average Man than he hath to himself. Whoso attaineth thereto shall have peace, the prospect of death and the hope of Hell. Source: Devil's Dictionary. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
| ABEND | English | Abnormal ending | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
| Antonym: normal (adj). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Insanity | Noun: disordered reason, disordered intellect; diseased mind, unsound mind, abnormal mind; derangement, unsoundness; psychosis; neurosis; cognitive disorder; affective disorder. |
Unconformity | Adjective: uncomformable, exceptional; abnormal, abnormous; anomalous, anomalistic; out of order, out of place, out of keeping, out of tune, out of one's element; irregular, arbitrary; teratogenic; lawless, informal, aberrant, stray, wandering, wanton; peculiar, exclusive, unnatural, eccentric, egregious; out of the beaten track, off the beaten track, out of the common, out of the common run; beyond the pale of, out of the pale of; misplaced; funny. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Abnormal |
| English words defined with "abnormal": abnormal condition. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "abnormal": Reflex, Abnormal. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "abnormal": Anormal. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Abnormal" is also a word in the following languages with English translations in parentheses. German (abnormal, abnormally), Indonesian (abnormal, morbid), Swedish (abnorm). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | That's abnormal. (Rear Window; writing credit: John Michael Hayes; Cornell Woolrich) You make it sound abnormal. (Gimme, Gimme, Gimme; writing credit: Jonathan Harvey) The barbarities of war are seldom committed by abnormal men. The tragedy of war is that these horrors are committed by normal men in abnormal situations ('Breaker' Morant; writing credit: Kenneth Ross; Jonathan Hardy) But you're better then normal, You're abnormal! (Futurama; writing credit: Lance Smith; Carl Colpaert) Pathological states can induce abnormal strength (The Exorcist; writing credit: William Peter Blatty) | |
Clever | The lab test indicated abnormal lover function. (references; author: unknown) | |
Movie/TV Titles | The Abnormal Female (1969) Abnormal Man (1994) Cho abnormal sex: hentai mamire (1993) Abnormal Encounters (1993) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title | ||
Books | |||
Periodicals |
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Theater & Movies | |||
Music |
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Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
PET scans at the level of the basal ganglia of a normal control (1) case 1 at the start (2) and after treatment with AZT (3). In (1) there is a homogeneous pattern of glucose metabolism in the frontal, temporal and occipital cortex and in the subcortical grey matter. At the onset of treatment with AZT (2) there is a heterogeneous pattern of glucose metabolism with a relative reduction in the posterior temporal and occipital regions and the thalamus. Thirteen weeks after treatment with AZT, the abnormal pattern has partly resolved (3). All images are scaled from zero to 100% of the maximum activity within the slice (scale shown on right of figure). Credit: Unknown photographer/artist. | Shown is a mammogram of a normal fatty breast, typical of older women. Diagnosis of abnormal lesions or cancer is more accurate in non-dense breasts. Credit: Unknown photographer/artist. | ||
This abnormal mammogram is not necessarily cancerous. Also seen are calcifications through ductal patterns. Patient would be avised to have follow-up at 3-month intervals. Credit: Unknown photographer/artist. | An illustration comparing a normal Chromosome 11 and an abnormal Chromosome 11 with the deleted segment that causes Wilms' tumor. Credit: Linda Bartlett (photographer). | ||
Sideroblasts are erythroblasts with fine, iron-containing granules in the cytoplasm. Normal sideroblasts show random iron deposits, typically 1-5, in the cytoplasm. Abnormal sideroblasts show an increase of granular iron deposits around the nucleus. Credit: CDC. | ![]() | Proliferative retinopathy, an advanced form of diabetic retinopathy, occurs when abnormal new blood vessels and scar tissue form on the surface of the retina. Credit: National Eye Institute, National Institutes of Health. | |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
William James | To study the abnormal is the best way of understanding the normal. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Sylvie and Bruno Concluded | Carroll, Lewis | I will here tabulate the passages, in both Volumes, where abnormal states occur |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Abnormal tissue growth. (references) | |
Certain blood tests are abnormal. (references) | ||
The first sign is an abnormal head shape. (references) | ||
Business | The prices of large capacity HDDs dropped sharply during the March - September 2000 period from W100,000/120,000 to W93,000/W105,000 for 8-10GB HDDs (5,400rpm), from W200,000 to W121,000 for 20GB HDDs (5,400rpm), and from W200,000 to W150,000 for 30GB HDDs (5,400rpm). The influx of "gray products" (products imported and sold through abnormal channels), mostly of Quantum, Maxtor, and Fujitsu, has also played an important role in lowering the domestic prices of high capacity HDDs. HDDs will continue to be in high demand through 2001 even though the prices of their competitive products, CD-RW drives and DVD ROM drives, will also keep dropping. (references) | |
Civil Liberties | Angola | The Government placed no abnormal visa restrictions on foreign journalists and allowed them freedom to report on all aspects of society. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| Speaker | Term | Phrase(s) |
Warren G. Harding | 1921-1923 | We can reduce the abnormal expenditures, and we will. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Abnormal" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 99.39% of the time. "Abnormal" is used about 813 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 99.39% | 808 | 8,626 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.61% | 5 | 157,705 |
| Total | 100.00% | 813 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "abnormal": abnormal child ♦ abnormal condition ♦ abnormal curve ♦ abnormal end ♦ abnormal failure ♦ abnormal frequency of urination ♦ Abnormal Pap Smear ♦ abnormal psychology ♦ abnormal returns ♦ abnormal scour ♦ abnormal steel ♦ abnormal termination. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "abnormal": abnormal-normal, abnormal-normals. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "abnormal"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Afrikaans | abnormaal. (various references) | |
Albanian | jonormal (aberrant, preternatural), i parregullt (erratic, inconsistent, incorrect, irregular, out), gjigant (gargantuan, giant, giantlike, gigantesque, gigantic, huge, monster). (various references) | |
Arabic | شاذ مختل العقل. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | необичаен (bastard, exceeding, out, out of the ordinary, out of the way, outlandish, rare, special, unaccustomed, uncanny, unconventional, uncouth, uncustomary, unusual, unwonted), неправилен (anomalous, awry, defective, erroneous, false, faulty, improper, incorrect, injudicious, irregular, lame, mis-, mistaken, unequal, unfair, untrue, vicious, wrongful), анормален (aberrant, freak), противоестествен (unnatural). (various references) | |
Chinese | 變態 (anomalous, metamorphosis), 反常 (freak), 不正常 , 不對 (amiss, incorrect, queer, wrong). (various references) | |
Czech | abnormální (deviant, unnatural), nenormální, mimořádný (associate, exceptional, extra, extraordinary, out of the ordinary, phenomenal, special, uncommon). (various references) | |
Danish | uregelmæssig (irregular). (various references) | |
Dutch | abnormaal. (various references) | |
Esperanto | abnorma, neregula, nenormala. (various references) | |
Farsi | ناهنجار (Backhand, Dissonant, Gruff, Inelegant, Lumpy, Maladroit, Malformed, Nefarious, Raucous, Rough, Surly, Timber, Uncouth, Unkempt), غیرعادی (Anomalous, Extraordinary, Irregular, Prodigious, Queer, Unco, Uncommon, Unusual, Unwonted, Utter). (various references) | |
Finnish | abnormi, tavallisuudesta poikkeava (exceptional, extraordinary, out of the ordinary), säännötön (irregular), luonnoton (affected, unnatural), epänormaalinen, epänormaali. (various references) | |
French | anormal. (various references) | |
German | abnormal (abnormally), unnormal, anormal (aberrant, abnormally, anomalous), abartig (deviant, perverse, sick, warped). (various references) | |
Greek | υπερβολικόσ (exceeding, excess, exorbitant, extravagant, fulsome, hyperbolic, immoderate, inordinate, profuse in, rampant, rank, steep, undue, vaulting, whopping), ασυνήθησ (extraordinary, odd, singular, uncommon, unconventional, unfamiliar, unusual, unwonted), ανώμαλοσ (aberrant, anomalous, bumpy, irregular, rough, rugged, scraggly, spotty, uneven), ανώμαλος (anomalous, irregular), αντικανονικόσ (recusant), αφύσικοσ (absonant, constrained, freakish, uncanny, unearthly, unnatural), διεστραμένοσ. (various references) | |
Hebrew | לא תקין, לא ורמלי. (various references) | |
Hungarian | rendellenes (anomalous, atypical, displacement, irregular, perverse), abnormális (anomalous). (various references) | |
Icelandic | óvanlegur. (various references) | |
Indonesian | aneh (irregular, mysterious, odd, oddly, peculiar, queer, strange, unnatural, unusual), abnormal (morbid), tidak biasa, ganjil (odd, peculiar, queer, uneven). (various references) | |
Italian | anormale (irregular), abnorme (abnormally, bastardly). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 病的 , 普通でない , 左巻き (counterclockwise, eccentric), 変態的 , アフリカ民族会議 (a priori, abseiling, absinthe, absolutism, abstract, abstract art, abstraction, adding sounds to a soundtrack after a film has been made, African National Congress, Afro, Afro-Cuban rhythm, Afro-hair, ahead, ANC, APL, application, application program, application software, apply, approach, approach light, approach shot, apres-guerre, apricot, dubbing, lowering on a rope, postlooping, postrecording, postsynchronization), 並外れ (extraordinary, far above the average, out of the common, unreasonable), 並み外れ (extraordinary, far above the average, out of the common, unreasonable). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | なみはずれ (extraordinary, far above the average, out of the common, unreasonable), びょうてき, ひ りまき (counterclockwise, eccentric), ふつうでない, アブノーマル , へ"たいてき. (various references) | |
Korean | 이상한 (Queer). (various references) | |
Manx | neureilt (haphazard), anreiltagh (anarchic, anarchical). (various references) | |
Papiamen | apnormal, iregular (irregular). (various references) | |
Pig Latin | abnormalay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | anormal (defective, unnatural). (various references) | |
Romanian | anormal (abnormally, anomalous, monstrous, prodigious), necorespunzãtor (ill, improper, inadequate, inappropriate, incommensurate, incongruous, unsatisfactory). (various references) | |
Russian | отклоняющийся от нормы (erratic), ненормальный (anomalous, bughouse, crackpot, deranged, deviant, insane, possessed, screwy, whacky), аварийный (emergency, wreck), аномальный (anomalistic, anomalous). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | abnormalan, nenormalan (aberrant, unnatural). (various references) | |
Spanish | anormal (aberrant, anomalous, atypical, defective, freak, freakish, irregular, unnatural), irregular (aberrant, fitful, irregular, uneven). (various references) | |
Swedish | abnorm (aberrant, deformed, freak, freakish), onormal (freak, steep). (various references) | |
Turkish | anormal (aberrant, anomalous, freak, freakish, preternatural, unnatural). (various references) | |
Turkmen | юumroя (deformed, ugly). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | ненормальний (anamorphous, anomalous, bugs, cracked, cracky, deranged, non-conventional, screwy, unsound), анормальний, аномальний (anomalistic, anomalous). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | không bình thường, khác thường; dị thường. (various references) | |
Welsh | annormal (inverted), anghyffredin (rare, uncommon). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "abnormal": abnormalities, abnormality, abnormally, abnormals. (additional references) | |
| |
"Abnormal" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: abdnormal, abnomal, abnorm, abnorma, abnormals, abnornal, aboral, adnormal, anormal, anormaly. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "abnormal" (pronounced abnô"rmul) |
| 6 | -n ô" r m u l | normal, paranormal. |
| 5 | -ô" r m u l | formal, informal. |
| 3 | -m u l | infinitesimal, abysmal, animal, baptismal, camel, caramel, decimal, dermal, dismal, enamel, endodermal, epidermal, geothermal, Hamal, hydrothermal, isothermal, mammal, maximal, mesodermal, minimal, optimal, pommel, primal, proximal, pummel, thermal, tramel, trammel. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-b-l-m-n-o-r" | |
-2 letters: aboral, amoral, barman, bromal, normal. | |
-3 letters: aboma, alamo, alarm, aroma, banal, baron, bolar, boral, labor, labra, lobar, loran, malar, manor, molar, moral, roman. | |
-4 letters: alan, alar, alba, alma, ambo, anal, anoa, baal, balm, barm, barn, blam, boar, bola, bora, born, bran, lama, lamb, loam, loan, lorn, maar, mana, mano, marl, moan, mola, mora. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-b-l-m-n-o-r" | |
+1 letter: abnormals, myrobalan. | |
+2 letters: abnormally, myrobalans. | |
+3 letters: abnormality. | |
+4 letters: elasmobranch, incomparable, incomparably, microbalance, normalizable. | |
+5 letters: abnormalities, antimicrobial, combinatorial, elasmobranchs, malabsorption, microbalances, neuroblastoma, noncomparable, nonmeasurable, perambulation, transformable. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Crosswords 3. Usage: Modern 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Photo Album 6. Quotations: Familiar 7. Quotations: Fiction 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Quotations: Speeches 10. Usage Frequency 11. Expressions 12. Expressions: Internet | 13. Translations: Modern 14. Abbreviations 15. Acronyms 16. Derivations | 17. Rhymes 18. Anagrams 19. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.