UNEXPECTED

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does unexpected mean? 

• UNEXPECTED (adjective)
  The adjective UNEXPECTED has 1 sense:

1. not expected or anticipated

  Familiarity information: UNEXPECTED used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNEXPECTED (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not expected or anticipated

Context example:

unexpected news

Similar:

unannounced; unheralded; unpredicted (without warning or announcement)

out of the blue; unanticipated; unforeseen; unlooked-for; unseen (not anticipated)

unhoped; unhoped-for; unthought; unthought-of (so unexpected as to have not been imagined)

unprovided for (not prepared or ready for)

upset (used of an unexpected defeat of a team favored to win)

Also:

surprising (causing surprise or wonder or amazement)

Antonym:

expected (considered likely or probable to happen or arrive)

Derivation:

unexpectedness (extraordinariness by virtue of being unexpected)

 Context examples 

An unexpected medical problem that happens during treatment with a drug or other therapy.

(Adverse effect, NCI Dictionary)

“The effect was so strong – as I say, it was so unexpected – that it does raise that question,” she replied.

(Vitamin A Supplement May Thwart Tuberculosis Infection, Jessica Berman/VOA)

After all that work, the fact that the cores show us something so unexpected and important is a great feeling.

(West Antarctica's largest glacier may have started retreating as early as the 1940s, NSF)

A degree of unexpected cordiality, however, in the welcome she received, did her good.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Suddenly, however, an unexpected incident opened up quite a new prospect to me.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

A sudden, unexpected change in weight can be a sign of a medical problem.

(Body Weight, NIH)

The next morning brought the following very unexpected letter from Isabella: (...)

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

After two decades of relative stability, the magnitude of the glaciers' acceleration was unexpected.

(Wind, Warm Water Revved Up Melting Antarctic Glaciers, NASA)

P450 enzymes are common in animals, plants and bacteria, but finding them in new viruses was unexpected.

(Surprising enzymes discovered in giant ocean viruses, National Science Foundation)

This is indeed an unexpected pleasure!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)