unexpected

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 expected

English unexpected

From un- + expected.

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ʌnɪkˈspɛktɪd/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

Adjective

unexpected (comparative more unexpected, superlative most unexpected)

1. Not expected, anticipated or foreseen.
   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     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.

   • 1936 February, Isaac Kashdan, “My Best Games of Chess”, in Chess Review:

     Certainly unexpected. The P[awn] is overprotected to the best taste of a Nimzowitsch devotee, and there seems to be no drastic weakness in White's camp to justify this intrusion.

   • 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.

   • 1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC:

     The windmill presented unexpected difficulties.

   • 2024 August 21, 'Industry Insider', “The value of rail reopenings”, in RAIL, number 1016, page 68:

     Providing accommodation is a significant constraint, and an unexpected development from the restoration of services to Okehampton is demand from the Exeter student population to rent local properties.

Synonyms

• unlooked for. See Thesaurus:surprising

Antonyms

• expected

Derived terms

• expect the unexpected
• sudden unexpected death syndrome
• unexpected hanging paradox
• unexpectedly
• unexpectedness
• unexpected red theory

Related terms

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

Translations

not expected, anticipated or foreseen — see also unhoped-for,‎ unannounced

• Arabic: مُفَاجِئ m (mufājiʔ)
• Armenian: անսպասելի (hy) (anspaseli), անակնկալ (hy) (anaknkal)
• Asturian: inesperáu
• Azerbaijani: gözlənilməz (az)
• Belarusian: нечака́ны (nječakány), неспадзява́ны (njespadzjavány), рапто́ўны (raptówny) (sudden)
• Bulgarian: неоча́кван (bg) (neočákvan)
• Catalan: inesperat
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 意外的 (zh) (yìwài de), 出乎意料的 (zh) (chūhūyìliào de), 始料不及的 (shǐliàobùjí de)

• Czech: nečekaný (cs), neočekávaný
• Danish: uventet
• Dutch: onverwacht (nl)
• Esperanto: neatendita
• Finnish: odottamaton (fi)
• French: inattendu (fr), imprévu (fr), inopiné (fr)
• Galician: inesperado (gl)
• German: unerwartet (de)
• Greek: αναπάντεχος (el) (anapántechos), απροσδόκητος (el) (aprosdókitos), απρόοπτος (el) (apróoptos)
• Hungarian: váratlan (hu)
• Icelandic: óvæntur
• Italian: inaspettato (it), insperato (it), inatteso (it), improvviso (it)
• Japanese: 予想外の (ja) (yosōgai no), 想定外の (ja) (sōteigai no), 意外な (ja) (igai na)
• Latin: subitus, repens, necopīnātus
• Lithuanian: nelauktas
• Luxembourgish: onerwaart
• Macedonian: неочекуван (neočekuvan)
• Malayalam: അപ്രതീക്ഷിതം (ml) (apratīkṣitaṁ)
• Manx: neuyerkit
• Māori: matawhawhati, whakaohorere, whawhati tata
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: uventet, uventa

  Nynorsk: uventa

• Polish: nieoczekiwany (pl)
• Portuguese: inesperado (pt)
• Romanian: neașteptat (ro), neprevăzut (ro), neanticipat
• Russian: неожи́данный (ru) (neožídannyj), нежда́нный (ru) (neždánnyj)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: неочѐкӣва̄н

  Latin: neočèkīvān (sh)

• Slovak: nečakaný, neočakávaný
• Slovene: nepričakovan
• Spanish: inesperado (es), inopinado (es), imprevisto (es)
• Swedish: oväntad (sv), otippad (sv)
• Turkish: beklenmedik (tr), umulmadık (tr)
• Ukrainian: несподі́ваний (nespodívanyj), неочі́куваний (neočíkuvanyj), нежда́ний (neždányj), рапто́вий (raptóvyj) (sudden)
• Vietnamese: bất ngờ (vi)
• Welsh: annisgwyl (cy)

Noun

unexpected (plural unexpecteds)

1. (rare) Someone or something unexpected.

Anagrams

• unexcepted