Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- In grammar, irregular in inflection. Hence Deviating from ordinary forms or rules; irregular; anomalous.
- noun In grammar, a word which is irregular or anomalous in declension or conjugation, or which deviates from the ordinary forms of inflection in words of a like kind. It is applied particularly to nouns having forms from different stems.
- noun A person or thing that deviates from the regular or proper form.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Deviating from ordinary forms or rules; irregular; anomalous; abnormal.
- noun (Gram.) A word which is irregular or anomalous either in declension or conjugation, or which deviates from ordinary forms of inflection in words of a like kind; especially, a noun which is irregular in declension.
- noun Any thing or person deviating from the common rule, or from common forms.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective Deviating from the ordinary rule; eccentric, abnormal.
- adjective grammar Being
irregularly declined orinflected . - noun A person who is unconventional; a
maverick - noun grammar An
irregularly declined orinflected word - noun linguistics A word whose
etymological roots come fromdistinct , different languages or language groups.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Nicolas Sarkozy, French to his fingertips despite his heteroclite background two parts Hungarian, one part Greek/Jewish and one part French/French, seems to have absorbed the first, but not the second, of the above two maxims.
Dr. Charles G. Cogan: Toujours de l'Audace! Dr. Charles G. Cogan 2011
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Over the years Amis has learned how to notate a superbly comic speaking voice; getting it down on paper is comparable to a good composer's skill in scoring heteroclite sounds never before made by concert instruments.
Martin Amis's 'The Pregnant Widow' Is A 'Strange, Sparkling Novel' (New York Review) 2010
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That makes the in-color onlooker the heteroclite, and the urbane aesthetic cellist the metroclite.
Heteroclite. Ann Althouse 2006
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These instances might with propriety be reckoned among singular or heteroclite instances, for in the whole extent of nature they are of rare and extraordinary occurrence.
The New Organon 2005
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These instances might with propriety be reckoned among singular or heteroclite instances, for in the whole extent of nature they are of rare and extraordinary occurrence.
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These instances might with propriety be reckoned among singular or heteroclite instances, for in the whole extent of nature they are of rare and extraordinary occurrence.
Archive 2005-11-01 2005
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Nor could I have dreamed the heteroclite crewmen I had met aboard Tzadkiel's ship, nor the jibers; and yet both had come from Briah, even as I; and Tzadkiel had not scrupled to take them into his service.
The Urth of the New Sun Wolfe, Gene 1987
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But even where he walked, amid a society intellectually fostering sentiment, in a land bowing to see the simplicity of the mystery paraded, Alvan's behaviour was passing heteroclite.
The Tragic Comedians — Complete George Meredith 1868
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But even where he walked, amid a society intellectually fostering sentiment, in a land bowing to see the simplicity of the mystery paraded, Alvan's behaviour was passing heteroclite.
Complete Project Gutenberg Works of George Meredith George Meredith 1868
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On the other hand, the heteroclite array of the dancers of the night before, torn from their slumbers, appeared in fantastic and ridiculous outline like the shades of a magic lantern; shawls, rugs, and even bed-quilts wrapped around them.
Tartarin On The Alps Alphonse Daudet 1868
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