ANOMALY • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Anomaly

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/ənˈɑməli/ Listen

noun

Anomaly n. (pl. anomalies)

Deviation from the common rule; an irregularity; anything anomalous. "We are enabled to unite into a consistent whole the various anomalies and contending principles that are found in the minds and affairs of men." "As Professor Owen has remarked, there is no greater anomaly in nature than a bird that can not fly."

(Astron.)

(a)

The angular distance of a planet from its perihelion, as seen from the sun. This is the true anomaly. The eccentric anomaly is a corresponding angle at the center of the elliptic orbit of the planet. The mean anomaly is what the anomaly would be if the planet's angular motion were uniform.

(b)

The angle measuring apparent irregularities in the motion of a planet.

(Nat. Hist.) Any deviation from the essential characteristics of a specific type.

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Etymology of 'Anomaly'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Anomaly" Quotes from Famous Books

... atrocious anomaly that the treatment often meted out to insane persons is the very treatment which would deprive some sane persons of their reason? Miners and shepherds who penetrate the mountain fastnesses sometimes become mentally ...

— A Mind That Found Itself - An Autobiography • Clifford Whittingham Beers

... the deep depression under which he laboured at this time, chiefly the result of ill-health. "It was," he said, "an unheard-of anomaly that the Foreign Minister of a great Empire should be responsible also for internal affairs." And yet he himself had arranged that it should be so. The desertion of the Conservative party had, he said, deprived ...

— Bismarck and the Foundation of the German Empire • James Wycliffe Headlam

... neither a "constitutional republic or democracy," nor has it ever been thus called. Neither is it a "government of the people by the same people"; but it is known and designated as "the Government of the United States." It is an anomaly among governments. Its authority consists solely of certain powers delegated to it, as a common agent, by an association of sovereign and independent States. These powers are to be exercised only for certain ...

— The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government • Jefferson Davis

... monster, and, if it persist, a chicken with its heart on its back, like a hump, may be expected. A curious fact discovered is the duplicity of the heart at the beginning of incubation, two hearts, beating separately, being clearly seen. Another anomaly consists in heads with a frontal swelling, which is filled ...

— Was Man Created? • Henry A. Mott

... No stranger anomaly can be conceived than that presented by the constant effort of these two eminent headmasters to undo the evils of a universal system of education. It is not often that people strive to set their house in order after this ...

— The Curse of Education • Harold E. Gorst

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