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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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.
Once farmers and ranchers arrived in California, their stock of calves and pigs and crops were a bear buffet, and that got bears killed much more often than any unprovoked attacks on humans.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 13, 2026
The legal system treated Fraser as a victim, a man simply defending himself from an unprovoked attack.
From Slate ● Aug. 11, 2026
Kabul, in turn, has previously accused Islamabad of carrying out unprovoked attacks in which civilians were killed - though Pakistan says it only targets militants.
From BBC ● Jun. 29, 2026
In contrast, Pope Leo XIV has denounced war, especially unprovoked wars.
From Salon ● Jun. 10, 2026
In New Hampshire there has not been an unprovoked fatal attack on a human by a bear since 1784.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
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.
