English

Adjective

unexpected ‎(comparative more unexpected, superlative most unexpected)

1. Not expected, anticipated or foreseen.
   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 2, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     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.

   • 1945 May, George Orwell, chapter 6, in Animal Farm: A Fairy Story, London: Secker & Warburg, OCLC 3655473:

     The windmill presented unexpected difficulties.

Synonyms

• See Wikisaurus:surprising

Antonyms

• expected

Derived terms

• unexpectedly
• unexpectedness

Related terms

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

Translations