unaccustomed
Americanadjective
-
not accustomed or habituated.
to be unaccustomed to hardships.
-
unusual; unfamiliar.
A brief after-dinner speech is an unaccustomed pleasure.
- Synonyms:
- unexpected, peculiar, curious, extraordinary, uncommon
adjective
-
(foll by to) not used (to)
unaccustomed to pain
-
not familiar; strange or unusual
Other Word Forms
- unaccustomedness noun
Etymology
Origin of unaccustomed
First recorded in 1520–30; un- 1 + accustomed
Explanation
If you're unaccustomed to something, you're not used to it. When you're unaccustomed to riding a horse, it might take a while to get the hang of staying in the saddle. An unaccustomed knock on the door might startle you and make your dog bark in alarm, and an unaccustomed bonus in your paycheck will come as a happy surprise. You might feel awkward having tea with a princess in a palace if you're unaccustomed to fine dining and dignified table manners. The prefix un here means "not," and it's combined with accustom, with its ultimate Latin root word consuetudinem, "habit, usage, practice, or custom."
Vocabulary lists containing unaccustomed
Flowers for Algernon
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The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
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Stories of Ourselves
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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.
"Feeling threatened by anyone who is different, we grow unaccustomed to encounters and dialogue. In this way polarisation, conflict, fear and violence spread."
From BBC • Apr. 17, 2026
One of Luna’s friends, unaccustomed to the social boundaries of a more analog era, called 17 times in a day.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 6, 2026
Tennessee, Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana -- southern states unaccustomed to intense winter weather and the bone-chilling cold that's forecast to continue for much of the next week -- were especially impacted.
From Barron's • Jan. 26, 2026
For Sarah, a 34-year-old marketer in Michigan, the summer of 2022 was a season flush with unaccustomed success.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 28, 2025
Chinese dresses at that time were dartless, cut as if women did not have breasts; these young doctors, unaccustomed to decorations, may have seen their chests as black expanses with no reference points for flowers.
From "The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston
Definitions 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.
