unexpected

From un- +‎ expected.

• (US) IPA^(key): /ʌnɪkˈspɛktɪd/

• Audio (US):

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unexpected (comparative more unexpected, superlative most unexpected)

1. Not expected, anticipated or foreseen.
   • 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter II, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:

     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.

   • 1940 May, “Overseas Railways: Acceleration Proceeds in U.S.A.”, in Railway Magazine, page 298:

     But the latest Santa Fe development, while not spurring the Rock Island to any further acceleration, has drawn fire from a totally unexpected quarter.

   • 1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […], London: Secker & Warburg, published May 1962, →OCLC:

     The windmill presented unexpected difficulties.

   • 2024 August 21, 'Industry Insider', “The value of rail reopenings”, in RAIL, number 1016, page 68:

     Providing accommodation is a significant constraint, and an unexpected development from the restoration of services to Okehampton is demand from the Exeter student population to rent local properties.

• See Thesaurus:surprising

• expected

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

unexpected (plural unexpecteds)

1. (rare) Someone or something unexpected.

• unexcepted