Word.ws English Dictionary

unprovoked

Syllables: un·pro·voked/ˌʌnpɹəˈvoʊkt/

unprovoked adjective: happening without provocation. Also the simple past and past participle of unprovoke.

Adjective

unprovoked (comparative more unprovoked, superlative most unprovoked)

  1. Happening without provocation.
    • Near-synonym: unmotivated
    • an unprovoked attack
    Synonyms:
    unmotivated

Adverb

unprovoked (comparative more unprovoked, superlative most unprovoked)

  1. Without provocation or motivation.
    • He attacked me, suddenly, unprovoked.
    • 'He said, "I won't bugger you"? Really?' 'Yes, really.' 'God. That is a bit suspicious; coming out unprovoked.'2011, Mil Millington ·, Love and Other Near Death Experiences

Also used as

unprovoked is also the simple past and past participle of unprovoke.

Examples of unprovoked in a sentence

  • Three unprovoked stabbings across Manhattan Monday morning that left two men and one woman dead show how the criminal justice and mental health systems fail New Yorkers, the city’s mayor said.2024 November 18, Nic F. Anderson, Melissa Alonso, John Miller, Sabrina Shulman and Sabrina Souza, “3 unprovoked fatal stabbings across...
  • The supernatural are so destructive that they have to create conditions to enable the continuous infliction of mental and physical injuries on others unprovoked.2012, Lord Loveday Ememe, The Supernatural:
  • So when one of our own flouts our laws to attack my house unprovoked—”2015, Mark E. Cooper, Way of the Wolf: Shifter Legacies 1:

All 12 example sentences with unprovoked

Synonyms of unprovoked

Forms of unprovoked

Adjective
comparativemore unprovoked
superlativemost unprovoked
Adverb
comparativemore unprovoked
superlativemost unprovoked

Origin of unprovoked

From un- + provoked.

Words formed from unprovoked

Questions about unprovoked

What does unprovoked mean?
Unprovoked means happening without provocation.
How do you use unprovoked in a sentence?
Three unprovoked stabbings across Manhattan Monday morning that left two men and one woman dead show how the criminal justice and mental health systems fail New Yorkers, the city’s mayor said.
What part of speech is unprovoked?
Unprovoked can be an adjective or an adverb.
How do you pronounce unprovoked?
Unprovoked is pronounced /ˌʌnpɹəˈvoʊkt/.

Words near unprovoked in the dictionary

  1. unprovocable
  2. unprovocative
  3. unprovocativeness
  4. unprovokable
  5. unprovoke
  6. unprovoked
  7. unprovokedly
  8. unprovokedness
  9. unprovokes
  10. unprovoking
  11. unprovokingly

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: unprovoked (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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