unexpected

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

un- +‎ expected

Pronunciation[edit]

  • (file)
  • (US) IPA(key): /ʌnɪkˈspɛktɪd/

Adjective[edit]

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.
    • 1940 May, “Overseas Railways: Acceleration Proceeds in U.S.A.”, in Railway Magazine, page 298:
      But the latest Santa Fe development, while not spurring the Rock Island to any further acceleration, has drawn fire from a totally unexpected quarter.
    • 1945 August 17, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 6, in Animal Farm [], London: Secker & Warburg, →OCLC:
      The windmill presented unexpected difficulties.

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Noun[edit]

unexpected (plural unexpecteds)

  1. (rare) Someone or something unexpected.

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