uncommon
Americanadjective
-
not common; unusual; rare.
an uncommon word.
-
unusual in amount or degree; above the ordinary.
an uncommon amount of mail.
- Synonyms:
- extraordinary
-
exceptional; remarkable.
- Synonyms:
- outstanding
adjective
-
outside or beyond normal experience, conditions, etc; unusual
-
in excess of what is normal
an uncommon liking for honey
adverb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of uncommon
Explanation
Anything uncommon is rare or unusual, like your uncommon last name, which all of your friends have trouble pronouncing. When you add the prefix un- to common, "occurring or done often," you get its opposite, uncommon. The word's earliest meaning was "not possessed in common," or not owned by everyone, from another meaning of common, "shared by the community." These days, people almost always mean "exceptional" or "not likely" when they describe something as uncommon: "It's uncommon for people to win the lottery, so don't waste your money!"
Vocabulary lists containing uncommon
Strange
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Strange
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Strange
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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.
See Examples For:
Having two altered copies is exceptionally uncommon and can severely disrupt the production of normal fibrillin-1.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 14, 2026
A politician named Adolf Hitler Uunona attracted similar attention in 2020 after winning local elections in Namibia - a former German colony where Adolf and other Germanic first names are not uncommon.
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2026
Outside of the movies, shark bounties are uncommon these days.
From Salon ● Oct. 9, 2026
Mr. Russell agreed: “I think nothing in the Constitution would prevent that,” adding “when lots of people act together to cause widespread harm, it is not uncommon for multiple different defendants to be potentially liable.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2026
And when Ranyinudo mentioned his wife’s name, Kosisochukwu, an uncommon name, Ifemelu imagined Obinze s mother asking her to translate it.
From "Americanah" by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
If this so-called thermodynamic effect were all there was to it, temperatures now considered unusually hot would become more typical and those regarded as uncommonly cold, uncommoner still.
From Economist ● Jul. 28, 2018
I should hope so," said the boy,—"the uncommoner the better.
From The Adventures of Captain Horn by Frank Richard Stockton
The commonest thing is quite as strange as the uncommonest, only habit blunts our sense.
From The Old Man of the Mountain, The Lovecharm and Pietro of Abano Tales from the German of Tieck by Ludwig Tieck
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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.
