Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use unexpected in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, noun

Unexpected means not expected, anticipated or foreseen. Example: “The horse shied at the unexpected approach of a motor vehicle.”

Examples of unexpected by meaning

adjectiveNot expected, anticipated or foreseen.

  • But the latest Santa Fe development, while not spurring the Rock Island to any further acceleration, has drawn fire from a totally unexpected quarter.1940 May, “Overseas Railways: Acceleration Proceeds in U.S.A.”, in Railway Magazine, page 298
  • The windmill presented unexpected difficulties.1943 November – 1944 February (date written; published 1945 August 17), George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], Animal Farm […]...
  • Providing accommodation is a significant constraint, and an unexpected development from the restoration of services to Okehampton is demand from the Exeter student population to rent local properties.2024 August 21, 'Industry Insider', “The value of rail reopenings”, in RAIL, number 1016, page 68

More sentences with unexpected

  • The horse shied at the unexpected approach of a motor vehicle.From the entry shy
  • I was unseated from my bike after hitting an unexpected pothole.From the entry unseat
  • A rush of business can be difficult to handle effectively for its unexpected volume.From the entry rush
  • That recipe is an old standby, and she keeps the ingredients around in case of unexpected guests.From the entry standby
  • He made spontaneous remarks in the court, after being asked an unexpected question.From the entry spontaneous
  • She went into a cleaning frenzy to prepare for the unexpected guests.From the entry frenzy
  • The arrival of the unexpected letter cheered him up almost immediately.From the entry cheer up
  • Thank you for the unexpected gift. It really made my day.From the entry make someone's day
  • The landlady magicked up a large breakfast for us and our unexpected guest.From the entry magic up
  • We would have died without the unexpected rain that brought life-giving water.From the entry life-giving
  • He would often fly into an unexpected rage without rhyme or reason.From the entry rhyme or reason
  • Rising early for the unexpected journey, the farmer left his cows unmilked.From the entry unmilked
  • The helicopter despawned shortly after take-off, leaving the player in an unexpected free fall.From the entry despawn
  • She turned ablush when she received the unexpected compliment.From the entry ablush
  • The ship ran aground in an unexpected shallow.From the entry shallow
  • The scientists were baffled by the unexpected results.From the entry baffled
  • He was resolved by an unexpected event.From the entry resolve
  • Unexpected big-ticket expenses wiped out his bank balance.From the entry wipe out
  • They seemed pleased by the unexpected gift.From the entry pleased
  • She was stunned by the unexpected news.From the entry stunned
  • I'll whip up a quick meal for our unexpected guests.From the entry whip up
  • He completed the task with unexpected swiftness.From the entry swiftness
  • The sweepingness of the reforms was altogether unexpected.From the entry sweepingness
  • The film has an unexpected ending.From the entry ending
  • His unexpected acquittal shocked the public.From the entry acquittal
  • What is behind this unexpected decision?From the entry behind
  • Such an extravagant valentine was unexpected.From the entry valentine
  • Events unfolded in an unexpected way.From the entry unfold
  • By August, work had stalled after the unexpected discovery of non-recorded foundations.2025 March 19, Mel Holley, “Access for All awaits a clear pathway”, in RAIL, number 1031, page 50. From the entry non-recorded
  • Despite leadership errors and fewer men, the German army displayed unexpected combative spirit.2024 May 27, “D-Day and the Tremendous Cost of Victory”, in Deutsche Welle, archived from the original on 08 Jun 2024, History. From the entry Omaha Beach
  • Her fans (they call themselves CoHorts) point to these unexpected pivots as part of Hoover's appeal.[2022 January 24, Stephanie Merry, “On TikTok, crying is encouraged. Colleen Hoover gets the job done.”, in The Boston Globe, volume 301…. From the entry cohort
  • Unsure of the correct procedure, I Googled “cleaning brass door-knobs” and an unexpected suggestion popped up.2018 September 13, Peter Barron, “Grandad at Large: Caught red-handed”, in The Northern Echo, Darlington, County Durham, →OCLC, page 49…. From the entry door-knob
  • About the same time in a decadal sense, there was a rather unexpected discovery.2017, W. Hugh Woodin, In search of Ultimate-L: The 19th Midrasha Mathematicae Lectures (Version: January 30, 2017), p. 2. From the entry decadal
  • The shell of a baculite was quite simply straight—an unexpected throwback to the early days of cephalopods.2017, Danna Staaf, Squid Empire, ForeEdge, →ISBN, page 89. From the entry baculite
  • There are always newly coined slang terms, fresh idioms, and these days unexpected “twitterisms” to deal with.2017, Rebecca L. Oxford, Teaching and Researching Language Learning Strategies: Self-Regulation in Context (Applied Linguistics in…. From the entry twitterism
  • So, it appears a revolution has happened and a very unexpected one.2015 January 18, Monty Munford, “What’s the point of carrying a mobile phone nowadays?”, in The Daily Telegraph. From the entry wildfire
  • The leaves electrify the sauce with an unexpected thrum of black licorice.2014 October 25, Jeff Gordinier, “In search of the perfect taco”, in T: The New York Times Style Magazine (international edition), page 100. From the entry thrum

Meaning of unexpected

  1. adjective Not expected, anticipated or foreseen.
  2. noun Someone or something unexpected.

Full definition of unexpected

Questions about unexpected in a sentence

How do you use unexpected in a sentence?
Unexpected is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “The horse shied at the unexpected approach of a motor vehicle.”
What is a short sentence with unexpected?
“The windmill presented unexpected difficulties.”
What does unexpected mean?
Unexpected means not expected, anticipated or foreseen.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: unexpected (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use unexpected in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/unexpected. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.