English
Etymology
Short for out of the clear blue sky, likening a sudden and unexpected event to something unexpectedly falling out of the sky.
Pronunciation
Prepositional phrase
out of the blue
- (idiomatic) unexpectedly; without warning or preparation
- After I hadn’t heard from her in six months, she called me out of the blue to meet for lunch.
- I really can't understand how something like this could simply pop up out of the blue.
See also
Translations
unexpectedly
- Arabic: مِنْ فَرَاغٍ (min farāḡin)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 出其不意 (zh) (chūqíbùyì), 出乎意料 (zh) (chūhūyìliào)
- Czech: zčistajasna
- Danish: ud af det blå
- Dutch: uit het niets, zomaar (nl)
- Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
- Finnish: yllättäen (fi), kuin salama kirkkaalta taivaalta (literally “like a lightning bolt out of a clear sky”)
- French: comme un cheveu sur la soupe (fr) (like a hair in the soup), comme un chien dans un jeu de quilles (fr) (like a dog in a bowling game)
- German: aus heiterem Himmel (from clear sky)
- Hindi: please add this translation if you can
- Icelandic: (like thunder from a clear sky) eins og þruma úr heiðskíru lofti, (like the devil from the sheep's leg) eins og skrattinn úr sauðaleggnum, (as a hard blow) sem reiðarslag, (like thunder from a blue sky) eins og þruma úr heiðríkju, öllum að óvörum
- Italian: inaspettatamente (it), di punto in bianco (it) (all of a sudden), come un fulmine a ciel sereno (like a thunder in a clear sky), dal nulla
- Japanese: please add this translation if you can
- Korean: please add this translation if you can
- Latin: inexspectate
- (deprecated template usage)
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- Lithuanian: lyg perkūnas iš giedro dangaus (like a thunder in the clear sky)
- Maori: matawhawhati, whāia (nei) ka/kua
- Norwegian: ut av det blå, som lyn fra klar himmel
- Polish: jak grom z jasnego nieba (pl) (like a thunder from the clear sky)
- Portuguese: do nada (pt) (out of nowhere), da cartola (out of the top hat), à toa (pt)
- Romanian: din senin
- Russian: как гром среди ясного неба (like a thunder in the clear sky), как снег на голову (like snow onto the head)
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: ка̏о гро̑м из ве̏дра не̏ба (like a thunder from clear skies)
- Roman: kȁo grȏm iz vȅdra nȅba
- Spanish: de la nada, de repente (es), de sopetón
- Swedish: som en blixt från klar himmel (sv) (like a lightning bolt out of a clear sky)
- Tamil: please add this translation if you can
- Telugu: please add this translation if you can
- Vietnamese: please add this translation if you can
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