unexpectedly

English

Etymology

From unexpected +‎ -ly or un- +‎ expectedly.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ʌnɪkˈspɛktɪdli/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adverb

unexpectedly (comparative more unexpectedly, superlative most unexpectedly)

1. In an unexpected manner.

   Antonym: expectedly

   Near-synonyms: against expectations, against all odds, surprisingly

   • 1863, George Eliot, chapter XVI, in Romola, volume II, book II, page 186:

     […] she was startled by unexpectedly meeting her husband, who was coming to seek her.

   • 1952 February, H. C. Casserley, “Permanent Wayfarings”, in Railway Magazine, page 77:

     Other evidence of former ownerships such as notice-boards, number plates, and makers' plates, are often discovered unexpectedly.

   • 1999, Robert Lacey, Danny Danziger, The Year 1000: What life was like at the turn of The First Millennium, London: Abacus, published 2000, page 121:

     The maw-worm could emerge unexpectedly from any orifice, including, most alarmingly, the corner of people's eyes.

   • 2021 August 19, Dianne Gallagher, “Texas Democrats’ effort to freeze voting bill ends”, in CNN‎^[1]:

     Texas House Democrats’ historic quorum break unexpectedly ended Thursday evening when at least three new Democrats returned to the floor, paving the way for state Republicans to pass restrictive voting legislation.

Translations

in an unexpected manner

• Azerbaijani: gözlənilmədən
• Bashkir: көтмәгәндә (kötməgəndə), ҡапыл (qapıl), кинәт (kinət)
• Belarusian: ра́птам (ráptam)
• Bulgarian: неочаквано (bg) (neočakvano)
• Catalan: inesperadament
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 竟然 (ging² jin⁴), 居然 (geoi¹ jin^4-2)

  Mandarin: 竟然 (zh) (jìngrán), 出乎意料地 (chūhūyìliàode)

• Czech: nečekaně
• Danish: uventet
• Dutch: onverwachts (nl)
• Esperanto: neatendite
• Estonian: ootamatult
• Faroese: óvæntað
• Finnish: yllättäen (fi)
• French: contre toute attente (fr), de manière inattendue, surprenamment (fr) (very rare)
• Galician: inesperadamente (gl)
• Gallurese: allisumbréttu
• German: unerwartet (de), unerwarteterweise (de)
• Gothic: 𐌿𐌽𐍅𐌴𐌽𐌹𐌲𐌲𐍉 (unwēniggō)
• Greek: αναπάντεχα (el) (anapántecha), απροσδόκητα (el) (aprosdókita)
• Hindi: अनायास (anāyās)
• Hungarian: váratlanul (hu)
• Irish: gan choinne
• Italian: inaspettatamente (it)
• Japanese: 思いがけなく (omoigakenaku), おもいがけず (ja) (omoigakezu)
• Latin: inexspectate
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: uventet

  Nynorsk: uventa

• Plautdietsch: onverhofs
• Polish: nieoczekiwanie (pl), niespodziewanie (pl), niespodzianie (pl) (literary)
• Portuguese: inesperadamente (pt)
• Russian: неожи́данно (ru) (neožídanno)
• Spanish: inesperadamente (es), inopinadamente (es)
• Swedish: oväntat (sv), oförmodat
• Telugu: అకస్మాత్తుగా (te) (akasmāttugā)
• Ukrainian: несподі́вано (nespodívano), знена́цька (znenácʹka)