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Unprecedented vs Unexpected - What's the difference?

unprecedented | unexpected |

As adjectives the difference between unprecedented and unexpected

is that unprecedented is never before seen or done, without precedent while unexpected is not expected, anticipated or foreseen.

unprecedented

English

Adjective

(-)
  • Never before seen or done, without precedent.
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2011 , date=December 19 , author=Kerry Brown , title=Kim Jong-il obituary , work=The Guardian citation , page= , passage=With the descent of the cold war, relations between the two countries (for this is, to all intents and purposes, what they became after the end of the war) were almost completely broken off, with whole families split for the ensuing decades, some for ever. This event and its after-effects, along with the war against the Japanese in the 1940s, was to cast a long shadow over the years ahead, and led to the creation of the wholly unprecedented worship of Kim Il-sung, and his elevation to almost God-like status. It was also to create the system in which his son was to occupy almost as impossibly elevated a position.}}

    unexpected

    English

    Adjective

    (en adjective)
  • Not expected, anticipated or foreseen.
  • * , title=The Mirror and the Lamp
  • , chapter=2 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.

    Synonyms

    * See

    Antonyms

    * expected

    Derived terms

    * unexpectedly * unexpectedness