arousing or exciting speculation, interest, or attention through being inexplicable or highly unusual; odd; strange: a curious sort of person; a curious scene.
4.
Archaic.
a.
made or prepared skillfully.
b.
done with painstaking accuracy or attention to detail: a curious inquiry.
c.
careful; fastidious.
d.
marked by intricacy or subtlety.
Origin: 1275–1325;Middle English < Latincūriōsus careful, inquisitive, equivalent to cūri- (combining form of cūra care) + -ōsus-ous. See cure
Related forms
cu·ri·ous·ly, adverb
cu·ri·ous·ness, noun
non·cu·ri·ous, adjective
non·cu·ri·ous·ly, adverb
non·cu·ri·ous·ness, noun
o·ver·cu·ri·ous, adjective
o·ver·cu·ri·ous·ly, adverb
o·ver·cu·ri·ous·ness, noun
su·per·cu·ri·ous, adjective
su·per·cu·ri·ous·ly, adverb
su·per·cu·ri·ous·ness, noun
un·cu·ri·ous, adjective
un·cu·ri·ous·ly, adverb
Synonyms 1. inquiring, interested. 2. spying, peeping. Curious, inquisitive, meddlesome, prying refer to taking an undue (and petty) interest in others' affairs. Curious implies a desire to know what is not properly one's concern: curious about a neighbor's habits.Inquisitive implies asking impertinent questions in an effort to satisfy curiosity: inquisitive about a neighbor's habits.Meddlesome implies thrusting oneself into and taking an active part in other people's affairs entirely unasked and unwelcomed: a meddlesome cousin who tries to run the affairs of a family.Prying implies a meddlesome and persistent inquiring into others' affairs: a prying reporter inquiring into the secrets of a business firm.3. singular, novel, rare.
a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
an arrangement of five objects, as trees, in a square or rectangle, one at each corner and one in the middle.
a stew of meat, vegetables, potatoes, etc.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.
mid-14c., "eager to know" (often in a bad sense), from L. curiosus "careful, diligent, curious," akin to cura "care." The objective sense of "exciting curiosity" is 1715. In booksellers' catalogues, the word means "erotic, pornographic." Curiouser and curiouser is from "Alice in Wonderland" (1865).