unexpected

English

Etymology

un- +‎ expected

Pronunciation

• Audio (US)

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• (US) IPA^(key): /ʌnɪkˈspɛktɪd/

Adjective

unexpected ‎(comparative more unexpected, superlative most unexpected)

1. Not expected, anticipated or foreseen.
   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 2, in The Mirror and the Lamp^[1]:

     She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […]; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid, […]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.

   • 1945 May, George Orwell, chapter 6, in Animal Farm: A Fairy Story, London: Secker & Warburg, OCLC 3655473:

     The windmill presented unexpected difficulties.

Synonyms

• See Wikisaurus:surprising

Antonyms

• expected

Derived terms

• unexpectedly
• unexpectedness

Related terms

• unplanned
• incidental
• contingent
• bolt from the blue
• out of the blue

Translations

not expected, anticipated or foreseen

• Arabic: مُفَاجِئ m ‎(mufājiʾ)
• Asturian: inesperáu
• Belarusian: рапто́ўны m ‎(raptóŭny)
• Catalan: inesperat
• Czech: nečekaný m
• Dutch: onverwacht (nl)
• Esperanto: neatendita
• Finnish: odottamaton (fi)
• French: inattendu (fr)
• Galician: inesperado
• German: unerwartet (de)
• Greek: αναπάντεχος (el) m ‎(anapántechos), απροσδόκητος (el) m ‎(aprosdókitos), απρόοπτος (el) m ‎(apróoptos)
• Hungarian: váratlan (hu)
• Italian: inaspettato (it)
• Japanese: 予想外の (ja) ‎(yosōgai no), 想定外の ‎(sōteigai no), 意外な (ja) ‎(igai na)

• Macedonian: неочекуван ‎(neočekuvan)
• Manx: neuyerkit
• Maori: matawhawhati, whakaohorere
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: uventet, uventa

  Nynorsk: uventa

• Polish: nieoczekiwany (pl)
• Portuguese: inesperado (pt)
• Romanian: neașteptat (ro) m, n, neprevăzut (ro) m, n, neanticipat m, n
• Russian: неожи́данный (ru) ‎(neožídannyj)
• Spanish: inesperado (es)
• Swedish: oväntad (sv)