Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Unexpectedly |
UnexpectedlyAdverb1. In a way that was not expected; "her brother showed up at the wedding out of the blue". 2. Without advance planning; "they met accidentally". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "unexpectedly" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1415. (references) |
Synonyms: UnexpectedlySynonyms: accidentally (adv), by chance (adv), circumstantially (adv), out of the blue (adv). (additional references) |
| Antonym: intentionally (adv). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Earliness | Beforehand; prematurely; Adjective: precipitately; (hastily); too soon; before its time, before one's time; in anticipation; unexpectedly. |
Inexpectation | Adverb: abruptly, unexpectedly, surprisingly; plump, pop, a l'improviste, unawares; without notice, without warning, without a "by your leave"; like a thief in the night, like a thunderbolt; in an unguarded moment; suddenly; (instantaneously). |
Neglect | Adverb: negligently; Adjective: hand over head, anyhow; in an unguarded moment; (unexpectedly); per incuriam. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Unexpectedly |
| English words defined with "unexpectedly": all of a sudden, apparition, At unaware, At unawares ♦ balkiness ♦ catch, Chance comer, crop up ♦ dark horse, deus ex machina ♦ found ♦ happily ♦ Inexpectedly ♦ of a sudden ♦ pop up, pretty ♦ Rencounter ♦ spring, suddenly ♦ To break in upon, To fall among, To fall into one's hands, To meet with ♦ unawares, Unware, Unwares, upset ♦ windfall profit. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "unexpectedly": Abandon ♦ Barometer, Brain ♦ Came across, Cherubs ♦ drop-out ♦ February ♦ green hole ♦ Limp ♦ Make a Hit, Met with ♦ Panther, Providential ♦ Sardines, Scaffold, Shakers, Sickness, Son, Spirit or Specter, Steal a March on One ♦ Trees ♦ urge urinary incontinence. (references) |
| Etymologies containing "unexpectedly": Unwares. (references) |
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | Lackluster comet LINEAR (C/1999 S4) unexpectedly threw astronomers a curve. Using the Hubble ... Credit: NASA. |  | The unexpectedly varied surface of a wayward piece of space debris has given astronomers new ... Credit: NASA. |
 | Critical moments. Pa and Ma arrive unexpectedly just in time for one of the college games --. Credit: Library of Congress. |  | Dadbing these pups that run out unexpectedly. Credit: Library of Congress. |
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits. | |||
| Author | Quotation |
Marcus T. Cicero | The injuries that befall us unexpectedly are less severe than those which are deliberately anticipated. |
Terence | How often events, by chance, and unexpectedly, come to pass, which you had not dared even to hope for! |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Life, the Universe and Everything | Douglas Adams | That young girl, he added unexpectedly, "is one of the least benightedly unintelligent life forms it has been my profound lack of pleasure not to be able to avoid meeting." |
Walden | Thoreau, Henry David | Commerce is unexpectedly confident and serene, alert, adventurous, and unwearied. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Or stool may leak from the rectum unexpectedly. (references) | |
Urinary leakage when the bladder contracts unexpectedly by itself. (references) | ||
In rare instances, sudden death can occur on the first use of cocaine or unexpectedly thereafter. (references) | ||
Economic History | Luxembourg | Somewhat unexpectedly, the Socialists gained ground in the October 10, 1999 municipal elections, with candidates taking 34% of municipal seats nationwide, including seven town mayorships. (references) |
Venezuela | On the other hand, placing a Venezuelan citizen on the company's payroll can be unexpectedly costly in case of separation, since in that case he/she is entitled to all benefits of the very generous labor laws. (references) | |
Equatorial Guinea | Production began in 1996. The company announced a 3-year U.S.$1bn rapid development program to boost output to 130,000 b/d by early 2001. Progress was delayed due to a contractual dispute with the government and by unexpectedly difficult geology. (references) | |
Human Rights | Zimbabwe | On December 31, Judge David Bartlett also unexpectedly resigned from the High Court. (references) |
Panama | In June Ricardo Julio Vargas, adjunct Ombudsman, unexpectedly visited La Joyita and reported witnessing human rights violations. (references) | |
Mexico | She believes it was in retaliation to a case she was working on, in which there was arrest made on October 3. Nothing was taken from her home and the intruder apparently fled when an associate of Castellanos unexpectedly arrived at the scene. (references) | |
Political Rights | Cameroon | Following the unexpectedly strong showing of opposition parties in the region in the 1996 municipal elections, Titus Edzoa, a ruling CPDM member from the southern part of the country, a former Minister of Health, and a longtime presidential aide, declared himself a candidate to oppose incumbent President Biya in the October 1997 election. (references) |
Lexicography | Devil's Dictionary | PROVIDENTIAL, adj. Unexpectedly and conspicuously beneficial to the person so describing it. |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Unexpectedly" is generally used as an adverb (general) -- approximately 99.89% of the time. "Unexpectedly" is used about 919 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Adverb (general) | 99.89% | 918 | 7,828 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.11% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 919 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "unexpectedly": come unexpectedly ♦ quite unexpectedly. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "unexpectedly"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | i papandehur (suddenly). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | فجأة (all at once, all of a sudden, bang, bounce, by surprise, on the spur of the moment, out of the blue, overnight, short, suddenly, unawares), بغتة (without warning). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | съвсем неочаквано (quite unexpectedly). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Chinese | 竟然 , 竟 (actually, indeed, to go so far as to), 意想不到地 (Fantastically), 出乎 料 , 居然 (go so far as to, to one's surprise), 儻 (if), 不料 (to one's surprise), 不意 (unawareness, unpreparedness). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Dutch | onverwachts (abruptly), eensklaps (abruptly). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Esperanto | neatendite. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Finnish | odottamatta (contrary to expectation), arvaamatta (unawares), aavistamatta, äkkiarvaamatta (all of a sudden, unawares, when least expected). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | inattendue, débotté (unawares). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | unvorhergesehen (unexpected, unforeseen, unforeseenly, unlocked-for), unversehens (all of a sudden, suddenly, unawares), unerwartet (abrupt, sudden, unawares, unexpected, unforeseeable, unforeseen, unlocked-for, unsuspected, unsuspectedly), plötzlich (abrupt, abruptly, all of a sudden, precipitate, rapid, short, snap, sudden, suddenly). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | απροσδόκητα (unawares). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | פתע (suddenly), ב"סח ""עת (unthinkingly, unwitting). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | váratlanul (abruptly, all at once, fortuitously, out of the blue, pop, quite unexpectedly, spontaneously). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Indonesian | tercetus (enkindled, said unexpectedly, sparked), mendapati (discover, find, unexpectedly meet up with). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 偶然 (accident, chance, fortuity, suddenly). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | たまたま (accidentally, by chance, casually), ぐうぜ" (accident, chance, fortuity, suddenly), そつぜ" (suddenly), ひょうぜ" (abruptly, aimlessly, casually), ひょっ"り (by chance), ふいに (abruptly, suddenly), ふと (accidentally, casually, incidentally, suddenly, unintentionally), ばったり (abruptly, flop, plump, suddenly, with a bang, with a clash), いがいと (surprisingly), "つぜ" (suddenly), あ"がい, はしなくも (by chance or accident), はからずも, とつぜ" (abruptly, all at once, suddenly), しぬけに (suddenly, without notice). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Korean | 의외 으로. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Papiamen | inesperadamente (abruptly). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | expectedlyunay inopinadamente (suddenly), inesperadamente (short, unawares). (various references) subit (abrupt, all of a sudden, on a sudden, sharp, sudden, suddenly, unexpected, upon a sudden), pe neaşteptate (abruptly, all at once, all of a sudden, impromptu, off hand, on a sudden, short, shortly, slap, snap, suddenly, unawares, upon a sudden), nitam-nisam, deodatã (at a clap, bang, short, slap, suddenly, unawares), brusc (abrupt, abruptly, all at once, bang, bounce, brusque, plop, plump, rash, roughly, rude, sharp, sharply, short, shortly, snap, sudden, suddenly, unawares, unexpected). (various references) неожиданно (all at once, all of a sudden, below expectations, surprisingly, unawares). (various references) neočekivano (accidentally, suddenly, surprisingly), iznenadno (all at once). (various references) inopinadamente (unawares). (various references) oväntat. (various references) habersizce (at unawares, unawares, unbeknown, unbeknownst). (various references) несподівано (abruptly, bang, casually, overnight, plump, surprisingly, unawares). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | insperate, repente, subito. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Misspellings | |
"Unexpectedly" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: unexpectadly. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "unexpectedly" (pronounced u'nikspe"ktudlē) |
| 5 | -t u d l ē | admittedly, assertedly, belatedly, contentedly, excitedly, heatedly, pointedly, purportedly, repeatedly, reportedly, reputedly, undoubtedly, unprecedentedly, wholeheartedly. |
| 4 | -u d l ē | acidly, advisedly, allegedly, assuredly, avidly, avowedly, candidly, decidedly, deservedly, determinedly, doggedly, evenhandedly, guardedly, markedly, placidly, rapidly, rigidly, ruggedly, solidly, splendidly, stupidly, supposedly, timidly, unabashedly, unashamedly, validly, vividly, wickedly, wretchedly. |
| 3 | -d l ē | absurdly, awkwardly, badly, baldly, blandly, blindly, boldly, broadly, coldly, cowardly, crudely, cuddly, dastardly, deadly, Diddley, downwardly, fondly, friendly, gladly, godly, goodly, grandly, haphazardly, hardly, hurriedly, idly, inwardly, kindly, loudly, madly, medley, mildly, niggardly, oddly, otherworldly, outwardly, profoundly, proudly, Ridley, roundly, rudely, sadly, secondly, shrewdly, soundly, straightforwardly, thirdly, unfriendly, ungodly, upwardly, weirdly, widely, wildly, worldly. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "c-d-e-e-e-l-n-p-t-u-x-y" | |
-2 letters: expectedly, unexpected. | |
-3 letters: centupled, unelected. | |
-4 letters: centuple, decently, excepted, executed, expected, peduncle, unpeeled. | |
-5 letters: cupeled, decuple, deplete, elected, exclude, execute, exulted, pudency, telexed, ycleped. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)55 6E 65 78 70 65 63 74 65 64 6C 79 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references)..- -. . -..- .--. . -.-. - . -.. .-.. -.--. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01010101 01101110 01100101 01111000 01110000 01100101 01100011 01110100 01100101 01100100 01101100 01111001 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)U n e x p e c t e d l y |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)0055 006E 0065 0078 0070 0065 0063 0074 0065 0064 006C 0079 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
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Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)558071908271698671707891 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Commercial | 5. Images: Photo Album 6. Quotations: Familiar 7. Quotations: Fiction 8. Quotations: Non-fiction | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Translations: Ancient 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Orthography 18. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
