Make Your Point > Archived Issues > ANOMALY
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pronounce
ANOMALY:
Say it "uh NOM uh lee."
To hear it, click here.
connect this word to others:
Tuck the quirky little word anomaly away in your mind with words like homonym, homophone, and homogeneous. Because even though it's not immediately apparent, at the heart of anomaly is the Greek homos, meaning "same."
An anomaly is something that isn't the same: something that stands out as an error or an irregularity. Which is so perfect, because the word anomaly itself stands out as the weirdo among its cousins from the homos family.
It does fit right in with other words starting with "a-" or "an-," meaning "not" or "without," like amoral ("not moral"), abu___ ("a lack of decisiveness"), and anes_______ ("to make people not able to feel anything").
Can you recall those last two?
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
definition:
"Anomaly" comes through Latin, but it has Greek roots.
You can see how it literally means "(something that's) not the same." The "a-" part means "not," and the "nom" part comes from homos, "same."
An anomaly is something that's irregular or unusual, compared to whatever is normal, common, or expected.
In other words, anomalies are things that stand out because they seem weird or unexpected.
grammatical bits:
Part of speech:
Noun, the countable kind: "that low score was an anomaly for her," "they're searching for anomalies in the genes."
Other forms that might come in handy:
anomalies, anomalous, anomalously, anomalousness
how to use it:
This formal, common word has a scientific tone.
To refer to something as an anomaly is to imply that people have been precise in measuring or keeping track of patterns. And because "anomaly" sounds so accurate and scientific, we find it often in science fiction--like on Star Trek, where episodes might be driven by some spatial, temporal, or gravitational anomaly.
Call something an anomaly when it departs from the normal, common, expected pattern. In other words, if you didn't predict it and you can't explain it, you might dismiss it as an anomaly.
"This white squirrel is an anomaly among its brown kin." "We found several anomalies in the data; going back, we found they were caused by typos." "The team's terrible performance today is an anomaly; it's been a great season for them otherwise."
A person, too, can be called an anomaly. Here's Colton Wooten for the New Yorker: "As the biracial child of a single mother, I was an anomaly in the suburbs of Raleigh."
examples:
"I first interviewed Ms. [Jennifer] Lee in 2015 for a New York Times Magazine article on the dearth of female directors. Many of the women I interviewed were sad, angry and bitter about the way they were treated and the work they lost out on. But Ms. Lee was an anomaly, happy and positive about her future."
— Maureen Dowd, New York Times, 7 November 2019
"In taking on his biggest budget film to date, [James] Gray also wanted to bring a scale of not only of size and scope but of emotions as well. The result is a movie that is an anomaly in contemporary Hollywood, a journey through space and into the self, an exciting adventure tale with a startling and deceptive depth."
— Mark Olsen, Los Angeles Times, 20 September 2019
has this page helped you understand "anomaly"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "anomaly" without saying "deviation" or "aberration."
try it out:
Anomalies happen, right?
Right. But when they do, we like to look closely at them. In the pursuit of truth, we're often eager to assign blame or credit, to draw the lines between causes and effects.
For that reason, we often point out that something is not an anomaly, but rather something that fits into a new pattern, something that can be traced back to a certain cause.
Let's check out two examples of people saying that such-and-such is not an anomaly:
From The Seattle Times: "What took place at Folsom Field Saturday was not an anomaly for Washington this season."
From The Guardian: "What [the documentary] illustrates, then, is that singles like Old Town Road are hardly anomalies in the history of country music."
Following these examples, talk about some fact, event, or result that is not an anomaly, despite people's first impressions of it, and why.
before you review, play:
Spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—let your working memory empty out first.
Rhyming Puzzles!
I give you a description of something, and you name it in a rhyming phrase. For example, if I say, "This is an ideal environment for a large tree-dwelling lizard--one in which this creature is perfectly happy and peaceful," then you say, "That's iguana nirvana."
The answers will get longer and sillier as the month goes on. If you'd like to see the clue, click or mouse-over the link. I'll share each answer the following day. Enjoy!
From the previous issue: If all the sellers of essential oils on Etsy got together to ban and shame one of their own for having made and marketed a supposedly holy healing oil containing the feathers of a cute and oversized flightless bird, that would be an _______ ______ ________. (Three words. The first two words have two syllables each. The last word has four syllables. Clue: use a form of this word, as well as another Make Your Point word.)
Answer: ostrich chrism ostracism.
Try this one today: At the risk of making a grand, poetic, bombastic claim, I'll argue that Anne Frank's diary is not only beautifully clean, bright, and clear in its writing style but also everlasting and permanent in its contribution to the story of human life: it's a ___________ ______ _______. (Three words. The first word has four syllables, and the second and third words have two syllables each. Clue: use this word, as well as another Make Your Point word.)
review this word:
1. A near opposite of ANOMALOUS is
A. TRUE BLUE.
B. RUN-OF-THE-MILL.
C. MARCHING TO THE BEAT OF ONE'S OWN DRUM.
2. Invented by W. A. Nagel in 1898, the anomaloscope measures _____ how we see colors.
A. nuances in
B. abnormalities in
C. emotional indicators of
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
Tuck the quirky little word anomaly away in your mind with words like homonym, homophone, and homogeneous. Because even though it's not immediately apparent, at the heart of anomaly is the Greek homos, meaning "same." "Anomaly" comes through Latin, but it has Greek roots.
Part of speech:
This formal, common word has a scientific tone.
"I first interviewed Ms. [Jennifer] Lee in 2015 for a New York Times Magazine article on the dearth of female directors. Many of the women I interviewed were sad, angry and bitter about the way they were treated and the work they lost out on. But Ms. Lee was an anomaly, happy and positive about her future."
Explain the meaning of "anomaly" without saying "deviation" or "aberration."
Anomalies happen, right?
Spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—let your working memory empty out first.
1. A near opposite of ANOMALOUS is
|