New Weird

noun

A literary genre that began in the 1990s, influenced by horror and speculative fiction, but often crossing genre boundaries.

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Meanings

nounNew Weird (uncountable)
  1. uncountableA literary genre that began in the 1990s, influenced by horror and speculative fiction, but often crossing genre boundaries.

    The most detailed response to Harrison's set of questions came from Stephanie Swainston, an author who has described New Weird fiction as exercises in world building characterised by a heterogeneity of sources, genres and details.

    2016, Ken Gelder, editor, New Directions in Popular Fiction, Springer, →ISBN, page 184

Origin

From new + weird (fiction), attributed to M. John Harrison (2002).

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

New Weird. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/New%20Weird

MLA

“New Weird.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/New%20Weird. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “New Weird,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/New%20Weird.

Source: New Weird on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.