UNORIGINAL

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does unoriginal mean? 

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

1. not original; not being or productive of something fresh and unusual

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNORIGINAL (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Not original; not being or productive of something fresh and unusual

Context example:

his life had been unoriginal, conforming completely to the given pattern

Similar:

banal; commonplace; hackneyed; old-hat; shopworn; stock; threadbare; timeworn; tired; trite; well-worn (repeated too often; overfamiliar through overuse)

bromidic; corny; platitudinal; platitudinous (dull and tiresome but with pretensions of significance or originality)

cliched; ready-made (repeated regularly without thought or originality)

cold; dusty; moth-eaten; stale (lacking originality or spontaneity; no longer new)

slavish (blindly imitative)

Also:

conventional (following accepted customs and proprieties)

uncreative (not creative)

stale (lacking freshness, palatability, or showing deterioration from age)

secondary (being of second rank or importance or value; not direct or immediate)

Attribute:

originality (the quality of being new and original (not derived from something else))

Antonym:

original (being or productive of something fresh and unusual; or being as first made or thought of)

Derivation:

unoriginality (the quality of being unoriginal)

unoriginality (uncreativeness due to a lack of originality)

 Context examples 

It was so cleverly stupid and unoriginal, and also so convincing, that the leaders cannot help but regard him as safe and sure, while his platitudes are so much like the platitudes of the average voter that—oh, well, you know you flatter any man by dressing up his own thoughts for him and presenting them to him.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)