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Momentous vs Unusual - What's the difference?

momentous | unusual |

As adjectives the difference between momentous and unusual

is that momentous is outstanding in importance, of great consequence while unusual is unlike what is expected; differing in some way from the norm.

momentous

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Outstanding in importance, of great consequence.
  • * 1725 , , Everybody's Business is Nobody's Business :
  • The reason why I did not publish this book till the end of the last sessions of parliament was, because I did not care to interfere with more momentous affairs.
  • * 1831 , , Homeward Bound , ch. 31:
  • "It has been a momentous month, and I hope we shall all retain healthful recollections of it as long as we live."
  • * 1902 , , The End of the Tether , ch. 3:
  • What to the other parties was merely the sale of a ship was to him a momentous event involving a radically new view of existence.
  • * 2007 July 1, , " Inferior Design," New York Times (retrieved 19 Nov 2013):
  • Natural selection is arguably the most momentous idea ever to occur to a human mind, because it — alone as far as we know — explains the elegant illusion of design that pervades the living kingdoms and explains, in passing, us.

    Derived terms

    * momentously * momentousness

    unusual

    English

    Alternative forms

    * unusuall (obsolete)

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Unlike what is expected; differing in some way from the norm.
  • *
  • , title=(The Celebrity), chapter=2 , passage=I had occasion […] to make a somewhat long business trip to Chicago, and on my return […] I found Farrar awaiting me in the railway station. He smiled his wonted fraction by way of greeting, […], and finally leading me to his buggy, turned and drove out of town. I was completely mystified at such an unusual proceeding.}}
  • Not usual.
  • Synonyms

    * (different from the expected) abnormal, rare, strange, weird, (stronger) extraordinary ** See also

    Antonyms

    * (different from the expected) normal, usual