Word.ws English Dictionary

counterexpectational

counterexpectational adjective: that goes against expectations; unexpected.

Adjective

counterexpectational (comparative more counterexpectational, superlative most counterexpectational)

  1. That goes against expectations; unexpected.
    • For example, in Saramaccan, property items can be reduplicated to encode counterexpectational semantics.2018, John H. McWhorter, The Creole Debate, Cambridge University Press, page 18

Forms of counterexpectational

comparativemore counterexpectational
superlativemost counterexpectational

Origin of counterexpectational

From counter- + expectational.

Questions about counterexpectational

What does counterexpectational mean?
Counterexpectational means that goes against expectations; unexpected.
What part of speech is counterexpectational?
Counterexpectational is an adjective.

Words near counterexpectational in the dictionary

  1. counterexemplification
  2. counterexemplified
  3. counterexemplifies
  4. counterexemplify
  5. counterexemplifying
  6. counterexpectational
  7. counterexplanation
  8. counterexplanations
  9. counterexploit
  10. counterexploitation
  11. counterexploitative

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: counterexpectational (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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