leftfield
leftfield Lexical Profile
leftfield Game Scores & Validity
• adjective
Unconventional, unexpected, experimental, or differing markedly from the mainstream.
"The director's leftfield casting choices surprised critics and audiences alike."
• noun
British A subgenre of electronic dance music that emerged in the late 1980s and 1990s, characterized by experimental production techniques that defy standard house or techno conventions.
"During the 1990s, pioneering British producers helped establish leftfield as an influential electronic music movement."
North American In baseball, the portion of the outfield to the left of center field when looking from home plate, or the defensive position played there (more commonly written as 'left field').
"The batter hit a high fly ball deep into leftfield."
Word Nuance & Usage
Most commonly written as one word or hyphenated ('left-field') when used as an attributive adjective (especially in British English), whereas the baseball noun and the idiom 'out of left field' are typically written as two separate words.
• Nearby Words
Word Origin & Etymology
Coined in the 20th century as a compound of 'left' and 'field', originating from American baseball terminology where balls hit into or thrown from the distant left portion of the outfield often seemed sudden or unexpected.