: the angular distance of a planet from its perihelion as seen from the sun
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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 of the Greek word anōmalos, which means "uneven" or "irregular." Anōmalos comes from the prefix a- (meaning "not") and the word homalos (meaning "even")—and homalos comes from homos.
In approximately 10% of patients, autism can be explained by genetic syndromes and known chromosomal anomalies (most of which have recognizable features in addition to autism) … Lauren A. Weiss et al., New England Journal of Medicine, 14 Feb. 2008Eleven minutes may not sound like much when you're waiting for a table at your favorite restaurant, but in the course of centuries, eleven minutes and change become a formidable chunk of time. By the 1300s, those superfluous minutes had added up to hours, then days, then more than a week. The calendar was losing time, irrevocably, to the "real" year, slipping further and further behind in its measurement of the earth's orbit. Anomalies began to creep into what had been the certainties of life. The spring equinox—one of two moments in the year when day and night are of equal length all over the earth, and which occurs on or about March 21—began to fall on March 16, then 15, then 14. Michelle Stacey, Harper's, December 2006Californians aren't the only ones vexed by rolling brownouts and other power-supply anomalies. Everyday power spikes, surges, sags, and line noise cause computers, stereo equipment, televisions, telephones, and other delicate electronic equipment to go psychotic or have complete nervous breakdowns.Fortune, 25 June 2001This policy may well have made sense back when steroid use was an anomaly. Now that bulking up with chemical help seems to be more popular than ever, it's incumbent on baseball to take action. Steve Kettman, New York Times, 20 Aug. 2000 We couldn't explain the anomalies in the test results. her C grade is an anomaly, as she's never made anything except A's and B's before See More
Recent Examples on the WebJersey’s outsize financial role traces its roots back to a historical anomaly in the thirteenth century, when the island pledged allegiance to the British monarchy but was never formally incorporated into what became the U.K. Max Colchester, WSJ, 24 May 2022 This region is a magnetic anomaly located at Jupiter's equator -- not to be confused with the Great Red Spot, a centuries-long atmospheric storm south of the equator. Ashley Strickland, CNN, 17 Dec. 2021 Underneath his black practice jersey, however, was an 8-inch scar bisecting his chest — the lasting reminder of a genetic anomaly that long posed a silent threat to his life. Connor Letourneau, San Francisco Chronicle, 10 Nov. 2021 In the months that followed the Provincetown outbreak, breakthrough infections would shift from a statistical anomaly to a regular occurrence. Arielle Mitropoulos, ABC News, 1 July 2022 The map featured in the post shows a 0.1 degree Celsius temperature anomaly for May 9, 2022. Kate S. Petersen, USA TODAY, 31 May 2022 The festival’s opening day last year was delayed by heavy rains — an anomaly in Southern California in September — that also led to a brief evacuation of the festival site. George Varga, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 June 2022 The rubbery clogs are certainly one of fashion’s most polarizing shoes, but Lipa is an anomaly among her peers. Christian Allaire, Vogue, 2 June 2022 That film brought playful wit and tender observation to a spiky relationship between Catherine Deneuve and Juliette Binoche, playing a famous mother and daughter, their starry double-act an anomaly in Kore-eda’s filmography. David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 26 May 2022 See More