Word.ws English Dictionary

out of the blue

/aʊt əv ðə ˈbluː/

out of the blue prepositional phrase: unexpectedly; without warning or preparation.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (idiomatic) Unexpectedly; without warning or preparation.
    • After I hadn’t heard from her in six months, she called me out of the blue to meet for lunch.
    • I really can't understand how something like this could simply pop up out of the blue.

out of the blue meaning in Tamil, Arabic and Vietnamese

out of the blue in Tamil

இவைகளையும் காணவும்

out of the blue in Arabic

unexpectedly
فَجْأَةً fajʔatan, عَلَى حِينِ غِرَّةٍ ʕalā ḥīni ḡirratin, عَلَى حِينِ غَفْلَةٍ ʕalā ḥīni ḡaflatin

out of the blue in Vietnamese

unexpectedly
đang không

Examples of out of the blue in a sentence

  • I've never done good things / I've never done bad things / I never did anything out of the blue1980, David Bowie, “Ashes to Ashes”:
  • I deckhanded on a fish boat for four years and knew no fisherman likes to be called out of the blue and have his numbers demanded!2004, Stephen Hume, A Stain Upon the Sea: West Coast Salmon Farming, →ISBN, page 210:

Origin of out of the blue

Short for out of the blue sky, likening an unexpected event to lightning or rain coming suddenly from a cloudless sky.

Questions about out of the blue

What does out of the blue mean?
Out of the blue means unexpectedly; without warning or preparation.
What is out of the blue in Tamil?
Out of the blue in Tamil is இவைகளையும் காணவும். See Out of the blue meaning in Tamil.
How do you use out of the blue in a sentence?
I've never done good things / I've never done bad things / I never did anything out of the blue
What part of speech is out of the blue?
Out of the blue is a prepositional phrase.
How do you pronounce out of the blue?
Out of the blue is pronounced /aʊt əv ðə ˈbluː/.

Words near out of the blue in the dictionary

  1. out of suits
  2. out of suits with
  3. out of sync
  4. out of temper
  5. out of the ark
  6. out of the blue
  7. out of the box
  8. out of the chute
  9. out of the common
  10. out of the corner of one's eye
  11. out of the frying pan and into the fire

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: out of the blue (page history and authors); out of the blue (Tamil Wiktionary) (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.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-out of the blue.ogg.

Cite this entry: “out of the blue.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/out_of_the_blue. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.