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aberration

ab·er·ra·tion [ ˌa-bə-ˈrā-shən]

aberration

noun

[ˌa-bə-ˈrā-shən]

Definition of aberration

1a : the fact or an instance of deviating or being aberrant especially from a moral standard or normal state
//aberrations of character

b : something or someone regarded as atypical and therefore able to be ignored or discounted Harkins was to be regarded as an aberration among American military leaders …— Neil Sheehan The U.S. establishment treated this grassroots movement almost as an aberration, virtually ignoring it.— Helen Caldicott As for Putin's desire to lay waste to Chechnya, Western leaders largely dismiss it as an aberration … — The New Republic

2 : failure of a mirror, refracting surface, or lens to produce exact point-to-point correspondence between an object and its image
//chromatic aberration … the telescope suffers from a serious focusing problem, a condition known as spherical aberration, which causes the point-like images of stars to be surrounded by fuzzy haze.— M. Mitchell Waldrop

3 : unsoundness or disorder of the mind

4 : a small periodic change of apparent position in celestial bodies due to the combined effect of the motion of light and the motion of the observer

5 : an aberrant individual

Other Words from aberration

aberrational \ ˌa-bə-ˈrā-shnəl , -shə-nᵊl \ adjective

aberrational behavior They react, often in anger, to particular decisions but tend to regard them as aberrational rather than systemic failures. — Robert H. Bork

Synonyms & Antonyms for dainty

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Recent Examples on the Web

//The case of the wrong person being taken off life support at St. Barnabas Hospital in the Bronx in 2018 is in many ways an aberration, a mix of bad luck, missed opportunities and unlikely coincidences.
— Joe Sexton, ProPublica, "End-of-Life Care Laws Were Supposed to Help New Yorkers. They Don’t Always Work.," 31 Oct. 2019
//Some employees who raised safety concerns were ignored, punished or threatened while G4S executives cast the most serious incidents as aberrations.
— USA Today, "A security empire deployed guards with violent pasts across the U.S. Some went on to rape, assault or kill," 31 Oct. 2019
//The Bears have to hope the defensive meltdown in London was an aberration, and the offense has to get going against a defense that has been carrying the Saints.
— Brad Biggs, chicagotribune.com, "NFL power rankings for Week 7: The undefeated 49ers surge while the Bears hold steady in the middle of the pack," 16 Oct. 2019
//His stats from last year are an aberration, not a regression in his ability.
— Brian Ricks, The Mercury News, "San Jose Sharks 2019-20 preview: Stop with the nonsense," 16 Sep. 2019
//Four more years of Donald Trump will go down as an aberration.
— Andrew Prokop, Vox, "What Biden meant to say in his bungled debate closing statement," 1 Aug. 2019
//And that year wasn't an aberration, but rather the start of a long dry spell for country/pop crossover.
— Paul Grein, Billboard, "In 1975, Crossover Hits From Freddy Fender, John Denver & More Ruled the CMA Awards," 10 Sep. 2019
//Jenkins and his colleagues weren’t an aberration, the plaintiffs argue, but the natural outcome of years of neglect, poor training and a lack of will to stop the abuses.
— John Holland, baltimoresun.com, "Police officers on Baltimore’s tainted Gun Trace Task Force are locked up. But the lawsuits keep pouring in.," 7 Sep. 2019
//But Taylor has proven that 4.5 to be an aberration.
— Scott Patsko, cleveland.com, "Taywan Taylor joins the Browns: 3 things to know about the wide receiver," 1 Sep. 2019

First Known Use of aberration

1588, in the meaning defined at sense 1a

History and Etymology for aberration

borrowed from Latin aberrātiōn-, aberrātiō "diversion, relief," from aberrāre "to wander away" + -tiōn-, -tiō, suffix of action nouns — more at aberrant entry 1

Dictionary Entries near aberration

More Synonyms and Antonyms ofaberration