Anomaly is a somewhat formal word that refers to something that is remarkable in its deviation from what is usual or expected.

// Last summer’s storm was an anomaly for this area.

// We were unable to explain the anomalies in the test results.

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“Magic realism usually makes no attempt to explain or justify the anomaly behind the magical event. Its justification lies in the conceptual possibilities it allows for in the narrative, pleasure it provides, and feeling of strangeness that comes from a familiar world being tweaked.” — Anthony Dunne and Fiona Raby, Not Here, Not Now: Speculative Thought, Impossibility, and the Design Imagination, 2025

You might be familiar with the Greek word homos, which means “same.” It is from this word that we get words like homonym, homogeneous, and homophone, all of which have to do with sameness or similarity. What does this have to do with anomaly? Although it’s not obvious, homos is a part of the etymology of anomaly, too. Anomaly is a descendant—by way of Latin and Middle French—of the Greek word anṓmalos, which means “uneven” or “irregular.” Anṓmalos comes from the prefix a- (meaning “not”) and the word homalόs (meaning “even”)—and homalόs comes from homos.