Incongruous vs Unexpected - What's the difference?
incongruous | unexpected | Related terms |
Not similar or congruent; not matching or fitting in.
* 1853 , , Villette , ch. 34:
*
* 1912 , , A Son Of The Sun m ch. 1:
* 2014 , Daniel Taylor, England and Wayne Rooney see off Scotland in their own back yard'' (in ''The Guardian , 18 November 2014)[http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/nov/18/scotland-england-international-friendly-match-report]
(math) Of two numbers, with respect to a third, such that their difference can not be divided by it without a remainder.
Not expected, anticipated or foreseen.
* , title=The Mirror and the Lamp
, chapter=2 *
Incongruous is a related term of unexpected.
As adjectives the difference between incongruous and unexpected
is that incongruous is not similar or congruent; not matching or fitting in while unexpected is not expected, anticipated or foreseen.incongruous
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- [P]erhaps he thought me, with my basket of summer fruit, and my lack of the dignity age confers, an incongruous figure in such a scene.
- Ona was blue-eyed and fair, while Jurgis had great black eyes with beetling brows, and thick black hair that curled in waves about his ears—in short, they were one of those incongruous and impossible married couples with which Mother Nature so often wills to confound all prophets.
- Ardent suns had likewise tanned his face till it was swarthy as a Spaniard's. The yellow mustache appeared incongruous in the midst of such swarthiness.
- For a few moments England toyed with the idea of making it a more difficult night than necessary. Scotland had scored a goal that seemed incongruous to the rest of their performance and, briefly, a fiercely partisan crowd sensed an improbable comeback.
- 20 and 25 are incongruous with respect to 4.
Derived terms
* incongruously * incongruousnessunexpected
English
Adjective
(en adjective)citation, passage=She was a fat, round little woman, richly apparelled in velvet and lace, […]; and the way she laughed, cackling like a hen, the way she talked to the waiters and the maid, […]—all these unexpected phenomena impelled one to hysterical mirth, and made one class her with such immortally ludicrous types as Ally Sloper, the Widow Twankey, or Miss Moucher.}}
- The windmill presented unexpected difficulties.
