Even though most bazaars sell festive and rare items, every bazaar in the Middle East is famous for something. Indian bazaars are famous for medicinal herbs, Arabian bazaars are famous for stone jewels and Arabian cutlery, and bazaars in China are famous for selling bizarre wildlife for food.
Don’t let the terms bazaar and bizarre be fuddle you. Even though they might sound the same, they have completely distinct meanings. ‘Bazaar’ is a famous Middle-Eastern term for a crowded marketplace whereas ‘bizarre’ is the term used for describing odd and unusual occurrences. The two words cannot collide with each other unless you’re at a very bizarre bazaar that sells spooky stuff. Bazaar is believed to have originated from the Persian language whereas bizarre has its roots in the Spanish term ‘basque’. If you would like to learn more about these terms scroll down for an elaborated meaning.
Bazaar vs bizarre – definitions, meanings and example sentences
Definition of bazaar
Bazaar is a noun and it is the Middle-Eastern term used for a marketplace that contains rows of small stalls selling merchandise and food stuffs. You can expect a bazaar to be crowded with people. There’s a lot of noise, a blast of colors and strong smells coming from the food stalls. You will find vendors attracting buyers, and buyers bargaining for prices. Bazaars can be temporary or permanent. UAE’s Global village is a good example of an exciting bazaar. In contrast, an American or Western bazaar is rather quiet and is usually set up for a charitable cause.
Example sentences of bazaar
- Every weekend, a temporary bazaar is set up just a few blocks from our residence so we don’t have any problem buying groceries for our entire week.
This sentence says that a temporary market is set up weekly near a family’s home and they can conveniently get their entire week’s groceries from there.
- Small bazaars on mountain peaks thrive on money gained by selling souvenirs to tourists. After the corona outbreak, the tourist industry has been devastated, and small bazaars such as these are facing a very crucial time.
If you’ve been to a mountain peak, you’d know that most markets there sell small-scale handicrafts to tourists which they buy as souvenirs for their loved ones. However, after the Covid-19 outbreak, local merchants who run these bazaars are facing a very difficult time since only a very small percentage of tourists visit their shops now.
- You can shop from an e-bazaar if you like but you’d definitely be missing out on the colorful displays and the scrumptious street food.
It looks like someone was trying to convince his friend to visit a bazaar with him. A bazaar has a very lively atmosphere. There are noises, exciting displays and freshly prepared flavorful food. Obviously, shopping through the internet cannot make up for the excitement a bazaar provides.
Definition of bizarre
Bizarre is an adjective which means odd, eccentric or far-fetched. If you saw a dog sharing his meal with a cat you would say: ‘how bizarre’ since these animals are mortal enemies.
Example sentences of bizarre
- Before the discovery of corona virus, it would have been really bizarre if people died from cold and flu. But ever since the virus has been discovered, it’s been accepted as an undeniable truth that people can indeed die of a cold.
The symptoms of Covid-19 include catching a cold, flu and a sore throat, that is why doctors prescribe a test whenever you catch a cold. Before the corona virus had spread, people would have found it odd if people died through a normal cold. The virus has completely changed this perception.
- The unfortunate student was expelled from the school because of some very bizarre habits.
Expulsion from school obviously meant that something was very wrong with the student. This sentence describes an unlucky student who was asked to leave school because of some weird habits of passively teasing fellow-students.
- A man narrated a story from his days as a security guard in a shopping mall, ‘I had caught a boy for shoplifting, when I asked him why he had stolen that stuff, he gave me the bizarre excuse that he had a lot of magnet pieces in his jacket which had attracted the metallic items from the store without him knowing. When I checked, they were indeed there.’
This sentence narrates a story from a man’s time as a security guard. He had caught a boy for shoplifting but had to eventually release him because the boy had given him a very odd but true reason of being innocent.
Many people end up confusing these terms because they are homophones. We would like to help you learn their meanings with this last but powerful tip. It would be completely bizarre if you don’t memorize them instantly. The term ‘bizarre’ has an ‘e’ and e is for ‘eccentric.’ The other word bazaar is a market.
