also: きてれつ
very strange; bizarre; outlandish
Colloquial and emphatic; describes something extremely odd or eccentric, often with a humorous or exaggerated tone.
His fashion is always outlandish.
Bizarre ideas kept popping into my head one after another.
extremely weird; very eccentric
Katakana spelling is the most common written form; the word is usually written in kana.
Ateji kanji spelling; rarely used in modern writing.
Hiragana spelling, also common.
The exact derivation is uncertain. The kanji 奇天烈 are ateji (phonetic equivalents) and do not reflect the word's origin. It may be a sound-symbolic coinage emphasizing oddness.