UNFAMILIAR

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does unfamiliar mean? 

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

1. not known or well known

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNFAMILIAR (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not known or well known

Context example:

be alert at night especially in unfamiliar surroundings

Similar:

strange; unknown (not known before)

unacquainted; unacquainted with; unfamiliar with (having little or no knowledge of)

Also:

foreign; strange (relating to or originating in or characteristic of another place or part of the world)

unknown (not known)

Attribute:

familiarity (usualness by virtue of being familiar or well known)

Antonym:

familiar (well known or easily recognized)

Derivation:

unfamiliarity (unusualness as a consequence of not being well known)

 Context examples 

PROFESSOR CHALLENGER: No doubt, sir, we have to bow to your scientific authority, although I must admit that the name is unfamiliar.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The team measured the animals’ behaviors while they explored an open field or an elevated maze or while in a chamber with an unfamiliar mouse of the opposite sex.

(Anxiety molecules affect male and female mice differently, NIH)

For chemicals with which you are unfamiliar, consult the Merck Index to determine whether the chemical is used in manufacturing, agriculture, or other occupational setting.

(Occupational Carcinogenesis, NCI Thesaurus)

And furthermore, he wouldn't claim, not even by tacit acceptance, to be familiar with anything that was unfamiliar.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The horizon of life was totally new and unfamiliar.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

It is, of course, possible that a cunning man might change the tires of his bicycle in order to leave unfamiliar tracks.

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

These findings imply that the first peoples were highly skilled at moving rapidly across an utterly unfamiliar and empty landscape.

(Ancient DNA analysis unlocks secrets of Ice Age tribes in the Americas, University of Cambridge)

But people tend to react negatively to these unfamiliar, chemical sounding names when they appear on an ice cream label, assuming these must be artificial ingredients.

(Freeze-Dried Strawberries and Ice Cream Make for a Very Stable Relationship, Agricultural Research Service)

The brothers, who were English to a man, pricked up their ears at the sound of the homely and yet unfamiliar speech; but the Abbot flushed red with anger, and struck his hand upon the oaken arm of his chair.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

First, because I have been made to learn that the doom and burthen of our life is bound for ever on man’s shoulders, and when the attempt is made to cast it off, it but returns upon us with more unfamiliar and more awful pressure.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)