unscheduled
Britishadjective
Explanation
Something unscheduled is not planned for or anticipated. If your mother shows up at your door unscheduled, hope that you've been keeping the place nice and clean since you won't have time to tidy up before her arrival. The word unscheduled describes something that is not planned or scheduled in advance, as seen by the prefix un- meaning "not." An unscheduled interruption of a television program might mean there's breaking news that you need to hear. An unscheduled delay of a flight might mean you're stuck in the airport for hours. Whatever it may be, something that's unscheduled happens without your expecting it, which means it might very well throw you off your regular routine or schedule.
Vocabulary lists containing unscheduled
100 SAT Words Beginning with "U"
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Kira-Kira
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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.
When you’re a kid, it arrives all at once: the last school bell, the first trip to the pool, the permission slip feeling of a completely unscheduled Tuesday.
From Salon ● Jun. 9, 2026
S&P Dow Jones Indices also makes tweaks at unscheduled times, such as when a current component gets acquired.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 5, 2026
This is the inevitable response to the rare unscheduled incoming call.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
More than 300 TSA employees have already left the agency since the shutdown began on February 14, according to the DHS, while US media reported unscheduled absences had more than doubled.
From Barron's ● Mar. 21, 2026
Instead it was a blizzard of rushed work, missing ingredients, unscheduled spills and dropped pots, unscheduled trips to the store, unscheduled pangs of doubt, and second-guessing.
From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan
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.
