adjective
-
not known or experienced; strange
-
not familiar
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of unfamiliar
Explanation
Unfamiliar things are unknown or unexplored. On your first day at a new school, every single face you see is unfamiliar. Traveling in an unfamiliar city is easier with a map or a GPS, and meeting the unfamiliar people who live there is easier if you speak at least a few words of their language. Some people love eating unfamiliar food — things they've never tasted before — while others aren't fond of it. When something (or someone) is familiar, it's known to you — the word shares a Latin root with family. Add the "not" prefix un-, and you've got unfamiliar.
Vocabulary lists containing unfamiliar
TEKS ELAR Academic Vocabulary List (5th-7th grades)
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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.
It has been a disastrous and unfamiliar start for Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh, who before this season had never lost his first two games, either in college or the pros.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 5, 2026
Others told BBC Punjabi of seeing masked or unfamiliar people inside the university.
From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026
To this list we must add Indian director Satyajit Ray’s 1970 drama “Days and Nights in the Forest,” which does not deposit its cast into a different country but into surroundings that are nonetheless unfamiliar.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 28, 2026
Do what a dog does when it approaches dark, unfamiliar territory: Tread carefully.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 23, 2026
The actions for this rhyme are indicative of life and culture in India, and include motions that are both familiar and unfamiliar to children’s game songs in the U.S.
From "Music and the Child" by Natalie Sarrazin
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.
