Meaning & use
unexpected
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Meaning
adjectivenot comparable
Not expected, predicted, or thought likely; happening without warning.
Grammar: Modified by words like totally or completely rather than very; describes events, news, people, and changes.
Patterns
- an unexpected visitor
- unexpected news
- an unexpected turn of events
- completely unexpected
An unexpected storm delayed our train by two hours.
Her phone call was an unexpected but pleasant surprise.
The results brought an unexpected change to our plans.
Common combinations
- totally unexpected
- The power cut was totally unexpected on such a clear day.
- an unexpected visitor
- An unexpected visitor arrived just as we were sitting down to dinner.
- an unexpected result
- The experiment produced an unexpected result that needed checking.
- an unexpected turn of events
- The deal collapsed in an unexpected turn of events.
Synonyms and how they differ
- unforeseen
- Very close in meaning but more formal and common in written reports.
- surprising
- Emphasizes the feeling of surprise rather than the lack of prediction.
- sudden
- Emphasizes that something happened quickly, not that nobody predicted it.
Opposites
Word family
- expect verb
- To think something will happen.
- expected adjective
- Thought likely to happen; the direct opposite.
- unexpectedly adverb
- In a way that was not predicted.
- unexpectedness noun
- The quality of being surprising.
Commonly confused: unexpected or unexpecting?
unexpected vs unexpecting
Not standard English; say an unexpected event, or say that a person did not expect something.
Practice
Which form correctly completes the sentence? 'The results ______ surprised everyone in the lab.'
Choose one answer.
The sentence needs an adverb to modify the verb 'surprised.' 'Unexpected' is an adjective for nouns, and 'unexpectedness' is a noun; 'unexpecting' is not standard English.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “unexpected”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.