These words refer to anything that is thought extremely strange, eccentric, unusual, abnormal, ugly or deformed. Bizarre points to the strange and unusual when they cause shock or surprise because of the unexpected, incongruous or sensational forms they assume: skyscrapers that were as bizarre to him as his village of mud huts would have been to us; the flamboyant gothic style in which the stonework of the arches and windows took on bizarre convoluted designs. Grotesque suggests more readily the eccentric or deformed when seen as a comic or horrible caricature of some norm: Falstaff and the other grotesque cronies of the young prince; children with grotesque , cadaverous bodies, blighted by disease and malnutrition.

Fantastic is more general and less concrete than the previous words. It can be used of anything that is fanciful or dreamlike or that appears as a departure from common-sense reality: the fantastic nightmare world of Hieronymous Bosch; a fantastic tower made of concrete, bottles, hubcaps and cans. The word is over-used as a hyperbole for anything pleasant, good or out of the ordinary. Weird is similar to fantastic in suggesting a harp break from ordinary reality: a weird feeling that time was standing still as the car hurtled down the cliff; weird forms of ocean life that live where sunlight never reaches them. This word, too, is over-used as a hyperbole for anything mildly unusual. Outlandish once suggested behaviour typical of people on the periphery of a cultural centre; now it more commonly suggests anything that is unusual to the point of shock or outrage: the outlandish dress of the pop singer; disgusted by their outlandish manners.

Way-out and far-out are current fad words for anything that represents a sharp departure from the norm. Most often, they are used as approving hyperboles for anything out of the ordinary: a marvellous, way-out party. These words are often used in descriptions of avant-garde art or the rebellious nonconformity of young people.