unprovoked
Britishadjective
Explanation
Something that's unprovoked is done for no good reason, with no real cause. A slap across your face is unprovoked if you did nothing to make the slapper mad at you. President Franklin D. Roosevelt famously described the 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese, which brought the US into World War II, as "unprovoked and dastardly." A military action that isn't reacting against a previous attack is unprovoked, and a furious outburst from your friend is also unprovoked if you gave him no reason to be angry. Unprovoked comes from the verb provoke, to deliberately incite anger or annoyance in someone. The Latin root is provocare, "call forth or challenge."
Vocabulary lists containing unprovoked
Hoot
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Dear Martin
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Purple Hibiscus
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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.
The FPA called on the police to "immediately take action against the officers involved in this unprovoked assault and to act in the future to safeguard press freedoms, rather than trample upon them."
From Barron's • Mar. 18, 2026
In their statement, Glover’s lawyer offered a different take on the March 2024 incident, noting that the actor was “the victim of an unprovoked felony assault” by Doe.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 26, 2026
I think they’re waiting for something that they can pitch plausibly as a completely unprovoked act of violence, or interference by a local or state law enforcement officer.
From Slate • Jan. 16, 2026
Despite video evidence showing the unprovoked attack, Oliva was barred from suing his assailants because Section 1983 doesn’t apply to federal officials.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 13, 2025
If there had been a second, unprovoked attack, McNamara insisted a response was “absolutely necessary.”
From "Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam" by Elizabeth Partridge
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.
