unexpected
adjective
Simple meaning
Happening without being planned or predicted; surprising.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhnihkspehktidSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
ənɪksˈpɛktɪd
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
adjective
Not expected, anticipated or foreseen.
Understand the Word
How this word is built, and what each part adds.
Unexpected describes something that arrives or happens without warning.
- un-
- not, or without
- expected
- thought likely to happen
Prefix function , Not — expresses absence of the quality
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- B2 · Upper Intermediate
- Frequency
- Moderately Common
- Typical Use
- Neutral / general English
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: Not expected, anticipated or foreseen.
Used this way, unexpected is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- No strong connotation
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use unexpected
- “We had an unexpected visitor arrive at our door this morning.”
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Similar Words, What’s the Difference?
Close in meaning, but not always interchangeable.
Not expected or imagined.
Word Family
Related forms, grouped by how they connect.
Word family
Words built from the same root.
In a way that was not expected.
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What Does It Mean Here?
Words can change meaning depending on context.
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.