unforeseen
Britishadjective
Explanation
Something unforeseen is something that could not be predicted and was not expected. It's a surprise. If something was foreseen, you saw it coming and it wasn't a surprise. Something unforeseen is the opposite: no one saw it coming. Accidents are usually unforeseen events: no one expects to get in a car or bike accident on a given day. Winning the lottery, since it's so unlikely, would be an unforeseen event. If something was unanticipated or out of the blue, it was unforeseen. Unforeseen events can be good or bad, but they’re all surprises.
Vocabulary lists containing unforeseen
Power Prefix: un-
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World Without Fish
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Florida's B.E.S.T. Common Prefixes: un-
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In addition, there are unforeseen circumstances that could prompt the use of Flex Alerts and rolling outages in limited areas.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2026
Another unforeseen effect of the barrage was to show that America’s military wasn’t as strong as it seemed.
From Slate ● Sep. 4, 2026
You could end up paying a relatively high marginal tax rate to convert assets into a Roth, only to experience a significant market decline due to an unforeseen economic or geopolitical event.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 2, 2026
In July, OpenAI's models went rogue during a test, escaped the test limits which humans had put on it, and hacked the start-up, among other unforeseen actions.
From BBC ● Aug. 26, 2026
A new kind of competition between Russia and the United States took shape that fall, a nuclear arms race that quickly raised the stakes of the Cold War to unforeseen and terrifying heights.
From "Spies: The Secret Showdown Between America and Russia" by Marc Favreau
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
