What does "strange" mean?
Sex outside of one's current relationship.
Strange
/stɹeɪnd͡ʒ/ adj, name, noun, verb, slang
adj, name, noun, verb, slang ·Very common ·Middle school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: Sex outside of one's current relationship.
- Grammar: strange is listed as adj, name, noun, verb, slang.
- Nearest alternatives: foreign, unusual, aberrant, aberrant.
- Useful contrasts: agreeable, common, familiar.
- Usage evidence: Sometimes he can be a strange guy.
How to use "strange"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "strange" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "strange" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "strange" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "strange" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "strange" is acting as adj, name, noun, verb, slang in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "foreign" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
Review note: Definition pages are checked for source coverage, sentence evidence, synonym support, and editorial insight before they are treated as approval-ready pages. If the evidence is too thin, the page remains available to users but is kept out of the approval-facing indexed inventory.
Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "strange", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Sex outside of one's current relationship. slang, uncountable
"It was a bar by license, but in hiring practice it became an intergalactic smorgasbord of xenosexual delights, females of fancy species serving drinks and offering cultural exchange to human males seeking some strange."
- 2 A strange quark. countable, particle
Verb
- 1 To alienate; to estrange. obsolete, transitive
- 2 To be estranged or alienated. intransitive, obsolete
- 3 To wonder; to be astonished at (something). intransitive, obsolete
"[I]f the world and motion were not from Eternity, then God was Idle; were all the Aſſertions of Ariſtotle, which Theology pronounceth impieties. Which yet we need not ſtrange at from one, of whom a Father ſaith, Nec Deum coluit nec curavit [he neither worshipped nor cared for God]: […]"
Adjective
- 1 Not normal; odd, unusual, surprising, out of the ordinary, often with a negative connotation.
"He thought it strange that his girlfriend wore shorts in the winter."
- 2 Unfamiliar, not yet part of one's experience.
"I moved to a strange town when I was ten."
- 3 Outside of one's current relationship; unfamiliar. slang
"When AIDS and Herpes hit the street Talib stopped fucking with strange pussy and stray pussy. Bitches had a ways to go to match Malikah in bed anyway. With her there was that extra element of real love that heightened sex […]"
- 4 Having the quantum mechanical property of strangeness. particle
"A strange quark is electrically charged, carrying an amount -1/3, as does the down quark."
- 5 Of an attractor: having a fractal structure.
Show 5 more definitions
- 6 Belonging to another country; foreign. obsolete
"I take goyng thither [to Italy], and liuing there, for a yonge ientleman, that doth not goe vnder the kepe and garde of such a man, as both, by wisedome can, and authoritie dare rewle him, to be meruelous dangerous […] not bicause I do contemne, either the knowledge of strange and diuerse tonges, and namelie the Italian tonge […] or else bicause I do despise, the learning that is gotten […]"
- 7 Reserved; distant in deportment. obsolete
"Good signiors both, when shall we laugh? say, when? / You grow exceeding strange: must it be so?"
- 8 Backward; slow. obsolete
"That to his name your barrenneſſe adds rule; / VVho louing the effect, vvould not be ſtrange / In fauoring the cause; looke on the profit, / And gaine vvill quickly point the miſchiefe out."
- 9 Not familiar; unaccustomed; inexperienced. obsolete
"I know thee well; / But in thy fortunes am unlearn’d and strange."
- 10 Not belonging to one.
Adjective
- 1 not known before wordnet
- 2 being definitely out of the ordinary and unexpected; slightly odd or even a bit weird wordnet
- 3 relating to or originating in or characteristic of another place or part of the world wordnet
Proper Noun
- 1 A surname.
- 2 A community in King township, Ontario, Canada, named after Frederick William Strange.
Antonyms
Example
"Sometimes he can be a strange guy."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "strange"?
Common synonyms include: foreign, unusual, aberrant, aberrant, able, abnormal.
How do you use "strange" in a sentence?
Sometimes he can be a strange guy.
How do you pronounce "strange"?
Pronounced /stɹeɪnd͡ʒ/.
Etymology
From Middle English straunge, strange, stronge, from Old French estrange, from Latin extrāneus (“that which is on the outside”). Doublet of extraneous and estrange. Cognate with French étrange (“strange, foreign”) and Spanish extraño (“strange, foreign”). Largely displaced native fremd, selcouth, and uncouth, from Old English fremede, seldcūþ, and uncūþ.