unintended
Britishadjective
Explanation
If you do something without planning or meaning to do it, it's unintended. An unintended consequence of your fun day at the beach is your painful, peeling sunburn. To intend is to plan or aim to do something. When you don't intend to do something but it happens anyway, it's unintended. An unintended side effect of your winning the 50-yard dash might be the extreme envy of your sister, who's very athletic and loves to win. And if you let her trim your hair later, you may just end up with unintended bangs!
Vocabulary lists containing unintended
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.
But these private actions risk unintended consequences for both Cubans and Americans.
From Slate • Jul. 1, 2026
An unintended consequence of the rule in recent years was that countries that were late in paying, or didn’t pay at all, would get refunds.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jul. 1, 2026
"These results suggest that weedkillers -- which, unlike antibiotics, are widely applied in agricultural environments -- may have the unintended side-effect of selecting for AMR among bacterial communities within the soil."
From Science Daily • Jun. 23, 2026
“Sanctions should not linger so long that their intended effects create unintended consequences.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Jun. 21, 2026
But the suspension of study privileges had an unintended benefit, and that was that I began to read books that I would not otherwise have read.
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.
