aberration

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: ab=er=ra=tion

CIDE DICTIONARY

aberration, n. [L. aberratio: cf. F. aberration. See Aberrate.].

•  The act of wandering; deviation, especially from truth or moral rectitude, from the natural state, or from a type.  [1913 Webster]
•  A partial alienation of reason.  [1913 Webster]

  "Whims, which at first are the aberrations of a single brain, pass with heat into epidemic form."  [1913 Webster]
•  A small periodical change of position in the stars and other heavenly bodies, due to the combined effect of the motion of light and the motion of the observer; called annual aberration, when the observer's motion is that of the earth in its orbit, and daily or diurnal aberration, when of the earth on its axis; amounting when greatest, in the former case, to 20.4'', and in the latter, to 0.3''. Planetary aberration is that due to the motion of light and the motion of the planet relative to the earth.  [1913 Webster]
•  The convergence to different foci, by a lens or mirror, of rays of light emanating from one and the same point, or the deviation of such rays from a single focus; called spherical aberration, when due to the spherical form of the lens or mirror, such form giving different foci for central and marginal rays; and chromatic aberration, when due to different refrangibilities of the colored rays of the spectrum, those of each color having a distinct focus.  [1913 Webster]
•  The passage of blood or other fluid into parts not appropriate for it.  [1913 Webster]
•  The producing of an unintended effect by the glancing of an instrument, as when a shot intended for A glances and strikes B.  [1913 Webster]

Syn. -- Insanity; lunacy; madness; derangement; alienation; mania; dementia; hallucination; illusion; delusion. See Insanity.

OXFORD DICTIONARY

aberration, n.
1 a departure from what is normal or accepted or regarded as right.
2 a moral or mental lapse.
3 Biol. deviation from a normal type.
4 Optics the failure of rays to converge at one focus because of a defect in a lens or mirror.
5 Astron. the apparent displacement of a celestial body, meteor, etc., caused by the observer's velocity.

Etymology

L aberratio (as ABERRANT)

THESAURUS

aberration

aberrance, aberrancy, abet, abnormality, abnormity, alienation, amorphism, anomalism, anomalousness, anomaly, bend, bias, brain damage, brainsickness, branching off, centrifugence, circuitousness, clouded mind, conceit, corner, crackpotism, crank, crankiness, crankism, craziness, crook, crosswiseness, crotchet, crotchetiness, curiosity, curve, daftness, decentralization, declination, defectiveness, deflection, deflexure, delusion, dementedness, dementia, departure, deployment, derangement, detour, deviance, deviancy, deviation, deviousness, diagonality, difference, differentness, digression, discursion, disorientation, distortion, distraction, divagation, divarication, divergence, divergency, diversion, division, dogleg, dottiness, double, drift, drifting, eccentricity, errancy, errantry, erraticism, erraticness, erroneousness, error, excursion, excursus, exorbitation, fallaciousness, fallacy, falseness, falsity, fanning, fanning out, fault, faultiness, flaw, flawedness, folie, foment, freakiness, freakishness, furor, hairpin, hamartia, heresy, heterodoxy, heteromorphism, idiocrasy, idiosyncrasy, illusion, indirection, indirectness, inferiority, insaneness, insanity, instigate, irrationality, irregularity, kink, loss of mind, loss of reason, lunacy, madness, maggot, mania, mannerism, mental deficiency, mental derangement, mental disease, mental disorder, mental disturbance, mental illness, mental instability, mental sickness, mind overthrown, mindsickness, misapplication, misconstruction, misdoing, misfeasance, misinterpretation, misjudgment, mistake, monstrosity, nonconformity, obliqueness, obliquity, oddity, oddness, peccancy, peculiarity, pererration, perversion, pixilation, possession, prodigy, provoke, psychopathy, queerness, quip, quirk, quirkiness, rabidness, raise, rambling, rarity, reasonlessness, self-contradiction, senselessness, separation, set, set on, shattered mind, sheer, shift, shifting, shifting course, shifting path, sick mind, sickness, sin, sinfulness, singularity, skew, skewness, slant, slip, splaying, spread, spreading, spreading out, squint, stir up, strangeness, straying, subnormality, superiority, sweep, swerve, swerving, swinging, tack, teratism, transverseness, trick, turn, turning, twist, unbalance, unbalanced mind, unconventionality, unnaturalism, unnaturalness, unorthodoxy, unsaneness, unsound mind, unsoundness, unsoundness of mind, untrueness, untruth, untruthfulness, vagary, variation, veer, wandering, warp, whim, whimsicality, whimsy, witlessness, wrong, wrongness, yaw, zigzag

ROGET THESAURUS

aberration

Variation

N variation, alteration, modification, moods and tenses, discrepance, discrepancy, divergency, deviation, aberration, innovation, varied, modified, diversified.

Unconformity

N unconformity, nonconformity, unconformity, disconformity, unconventionality, informality, abnormity, abnormality, anomaly, anomalousness, exception, peculiarity, infraction of law, breach, of law, violation of law, violation of custom, violation of usage, infringement of law, infringement of custom, infringement of usage, teratism, eccentricity, bizarrerie, oddity, je ne sais quoi, monster, monstrosity, rarity, freak, freak of Nature, weirdo, mutant, rouser, snorter, individuality, idiosyncrasy, originality, mannerism, aberration, irregularity, variety, singularity, exemption, salvo, nonconformist, nondescript, character, original, nonesuch, nonsuch, monster, prodigy, wonder, miracle, curiosity, flying fish, black sheep, black swan, lusus naturae, rara avis, queer fish, mongrel, random breed, half-caste, half-blood, half-breed, metis, crossbreed, hybrid, mule, hinny, mulatto, tertium quid, hermaphrodite, phoenix, chimera, hydra, sphinx, minotaur, griffin, griffon, centaur, saggittary, kraken, cockatrice, wyvern, roc, dragon, sea serpent, mermaid, merman, merfolk, unicorn, Cyclops, men whose heads do grow beneath their shoulders, teratology, fish out of water, neither one thing nor another, neither fish nor fowl, neither fish flesh nor fowl nor good red herring, one in a million, one in a way, one in a thousand, outcast, outlaw, off the beaten track, oasis, 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, unusual, unaccustomed, uncustomary, unwonted, uncommon, rare, curious, odd, extraordinary, out of the ordinary, strange, monstrous, wonderful, unexpected, unaccountable, outre, out of the way, remarkable, noteworthy, queer, quaint, nondescript, none such, sui generis, unfashionable, fantastic, grotesque, bizarre, outlandish, exotic, tombe des nues, preternatural, denaturalized, heterogeneous, heteroclite, amorphous, mongrel, amphibious, epicene, half blood, hybrid, androgynous, androgynal, asymmetric, adelomorphous, bisexual, hermaphrodite, monoclinous, qualified, singular, unique, one-of-a-kind, newfangled, novel, non-classical, original, unconventional, unheard of, unfamiliar, undescribed, unprecedented, unparalleled, unexampled, unconformably, except, unless, save barring, beside, without, save and except, let alone, however, yet, but, once in a blue moon, once in a million years, Int, what on earth!, what in the world!, What the devil!, Holy cow!, Can you top that?, Sacre bleu, never was seen the like, never was heard the like, never was known the like, I could hardly believe it, I saw it, but I didn't believe it.

Deviation

N deviation, swerving, obliquation, warp, refraction, flection, flexion, sweep, deflection, deflexure, declination, diversion, digression, depart from, aberration, divergence, zigzag, detour, divagation, wandering, vagrancy, evagation, bypaths and crooked ways, byroad, sidling, knight's move at chess, deviating, aberrant, errant, excursive, discursive, devious, desultory, loose, rambling, stray, erratic, vagrant, undirected, circuitous, indirect, zigzag, crab-like, astray from, round about, wide of the mark, to the right about, all manner of ways, circuitously, obliquely, sideling, like the move of the knight on a chessboard.

Divergence

N divergence, divergency, divarication, ramification, forking, radiation, separation, dispersion, deviation, aberration, diverging, divergent, radiant, centrifugal, aberrant.

Insanity

N insanity, disordered reason, disordered intellect, diseased mind, unsound mind, abnormal mind, derangement, unsoundness, psychosis, neurosis, cognitive disorder, affective disorder, insanity, lunacy, madness, mania, rabies, furor, mental alienation, aberration, paranoia, schizophrenia, dementation, dementia, demency, phrenitis, phrensy, frenzy, raving, incoherence, wandering, delirium, calenture of the brain, delusion, hallucination, lycanthropy, brain storm, vertigo, dizziness, swimming, sunstroke, coup de soleil, siriasis, fanaticism, infatuation, craze, oddity, eccentricity, twist, monomania (caprice), kleptodipsomania, hypochondriasis, melancholia, depression, clinical depression, severe depression, hysteria, amentia, screw loose, tile loose, slate loose, bee in one's bonnet, rats in the upper story, dotage, insane, mad, lunatic, loony, crazy, crazed, aliene, non compos mentis, not right, cracked, touched, bereft of reason, all possessed, unhinged, unsettled in one's mind, insensate, reasonless, beside oneself, demented, daft, phrenzied, frenzied, frenetic, possessed, possessed with a devil, deranged, maddened, moonstruck, shatterpated, mad-brained, scatter brained, shatter brained, crackbrained, touched, tetched, off one's head, maniacal, delirious, lightheaded, incoherent, rambling, doting, wandering, frantic, raving, stark staring mad, stark raving mad, wild-eyed, berserk, delusional, hallucinatory, corybantic, dithyrambic, rabid, giddy, vertiginous, wild, haggard, mazed, flighty, distracted, distraught, depressed, agitated, hyped up, bewildered, mad as a March hare, mad as a hatter, of unsound mind, touched in one's head, wrong in one's head, not right in one's head, not in one's right mind, not right in one's wits, upper story, out of one's mind, out of one's wits, out of one's skull, far gone, out of one's senses, out of one's wits, not in one's right mind, fanatical, infatuated, odd, eccentric, hypped, hyppish, spaced out, imbecile, silly, like one possessed, the mind having lost its balance, the reason under a cloud, tet exaltee, tet montee, ira furor brevis est, omnes stultos insanire.