unanticipated
Britishadjective
Explanation
Unanticipated means "unexpected." Finding a candy bar in your lunchbox when your mom usually packs nothing but health food would be an unanticipated delight. Just as pleasure is sweetest when unanticipated, unanticipated pain is a bitter pill. Getting laid off from a job is often unanticipated––and the fact that you're blindsided by it is often the source of most of the pain. You wonder why you didn't see it coming, and worry that other unanticipated disasters lie in wait for you.
Vocabulary lists containing unanticipated
The SAT: Words to Capture Tone, List 5
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The New SAT: Words to Capture Tone
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Flora and Ulysses
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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.
Logan said that current interest rates were not sufficiently restrictive on economic activity, and that barring an "unanticipated shock" inflation was likely to continue to trend above target.
From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026
“The Constitution is an enduring document,” wrote Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, but its rules and meaning must adjust to “modern situations that were unknown or unanticipated by the Constitution’s Framers.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026
Over any long period, they will likely be better off with a 90-10 portfolio—90% in a low-cost stock index and 10% in a money-market fund to pay unanticipated expenses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 21, 2026
“In-home care is the most underestimated and unanticipated cost,” says Nina Pflumm Herndon, president of the Aging Life Care Association.
From MarketWatch ● Apr. 15, 2026
One unanticipated result of ending manual labor was that I began to gain weight.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
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.
