abnormal

abnormal, atypical, aberrant mean deviating markedly from the rule or standard of its kind. All are used in the sciences, as in biology and psychology, to express non-conformity to type.

Abnormal frequently connotes strangeness or excess and sometimes, as in abnormality, deformity or monstrosity

{

power when wielded by abnormal energy is the most serious of facts— Henry Adams

}

In psychology, as applied to persons, abnormal often suggests poorer than normal performance or poorer than normal adjustment to the conditions of life and is equivalent to subnormal; in general use better than normal powers are often implied

{

can envision the future in the light of what he remembers of the past. His powers of recollection . . . are abnormal— R. L. Taylor

}

Atypical stresses divergence upward or downward from the established norm of some group, kind, or stage (as of development)

{

atypical reactions

}

{

stealing is to be looked upon as atypical behavior . . . not the customarily accepted type of response that we expect from children— G. E. Gardner

}

Aberrant seldom loses its literal implication of wandering or straying; in the sciences, where it is applied to departures from type, it carries none of the extra connotations of abnormal and is less restricted in its reference than atypical

{

aberrant forms of a botanical species

}

In general use it often suggests moral deviation

{

such a choice must argue aberrant senses, or degenerate blood— Kingsley

}

Analogous words: *irregular, unnatural, anomalous: unusual, unwonted, uncustomary, unaccustomed (see affirmative adjectives at USUAL): *monstrous, prodigious

Antonyms: normal

Contrasted words: *regular, typical, natural: ordinary, *common, familiar: *usual, wonted, customary