unpredictability

English

Etymology

Etymology tree

Proto-Indo-European *né

Proto-Indo-European *n̥-

Proto-Germanic *un-

Proto-West Germanic *un-

Old English un-

Middle English un-

English un-

English predict

Proto-Indo-European *-tḗr

Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlom

Proto-Indo-European *-dʰlis

Proto-Italic *-ðlis

Latin -bilis

Latin -ābilis

Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂

Proto-Indo-European *-ts

Proto-Indo-European *-teh₂ts

Proto-Italic *-tāts

Latin -tās

Latin -abilitas

Middle French -abletébor.

Middle English -ablete

English -ability

English predictability

English unpredictability

From un- + predictability.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

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Noun

unpredictability (countable and uncountable, plural unpredictabilities)

1. (uncountable) The quality of being unpredictable.
   • 2025 January 30, Tessa Solomon, “AI Art Lacking ‘Human Expression’ Cannot Be Copyrighted, US Officials Say”, in ARTnews‎^[1]:

     The unpredictability of Gemini was then contrasted with examples of human spontaneity, like the splatter technique of Jackson Pollock.

2. (countable) Something which is unpredictable.

Translations

The quality of being unpredictable

• Catalan: impredictibilitat f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 變化莫測 / 变化莫测 (zh) (biànhuàmòcè), 出乎意料 (zh) (chūhūyìliào)

• Danish: uforudsigelighed c
• Dutch: onvoorspelbaarheid (nl)
• Estonian: ettearvamatus
• Finnish: ennalta-arvaamattomuus
• French: imprévisibilité (fr)
• German: Unvorhersehbarkeit (de) f
• Hungarian: kiszámíthatatlanság (hu)
• Italian: imprevedibilità (it) f
• Māori: kumukumu
• Polish: nieprzewidywalność (pl) f
• Portuguese: imprevisibilidade (pt) f
• Romanian: neprevizibilitate f, neanticipabilitate f
• Russian: непредсказу́емость (ru) f (nepredskazújemostʹ)
• Spanish: imprevisibilidad f, impredecibilidad f
• Swedish: oförutsägbarhet (sv) c
• Ukrainian: непередба́чуваність f (neperedbáčuvanistʹ), непрогнозо́ваність f (neprohnozóvanistʹ)

Something which is unpredictable

• Dutch: onvoorspelbaarheid (nl)
• Portuguese: imprevisibilidade (pt) f
• Romanian: neprevizibilitate f
• Spanish: lo imprevisible / impredecible