aberration definition

aberration definition

An aberration is a noun that means something that is not normal or is very typical at all. An example of an aberration is when the temperature hits 90 degrees in January — it's nice and warm, but it's really strange.

The noun aberration often refers to something that doesn't fit with current moral standards, or is something that shows a mental lack of control. Aberration comes from the Latin word that means "to wander, go astray." Today, you'd say it was an aberration to send little children to work in coal mines and factories and not to school, which was common in the nineteenth century. There's a very old poem called "The Chimney Sweep" about a boy who cleans chimneys and is only about five years old!

Examples of aberration definition

For her, such a low grade on an exam was an aberration.
A study of sexual aberration definition

Recently geneticists have taken a closer look at a genetic aberration previously considered rare … . The genes may be perfectly normal, yet there is a shortage or surplus of DNA sequences that may play a role in diseases that defy straightforward genetic patterns. Melinda Wenner, Scientific American, June 2009.

Word Origin And History
   Aberration

1590s, "a wandering, straying," from L. aberrationem (nom. aberratio) "a wandering," from pp. stem of aberrare "go astray," from ab- "away" + errare "to wander" (see err). Meaning "deviation from the normal type" first attested 1846.