Unprecedented vs Unusual - What's the difference?
unprecedented | unusual | Related terms |
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
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.
Unprecedented is a related term of unusual.
As adjectives the difference between unprecedented and unusual
is that unprecedented is never before seen or done, without precedent while unusual is unlike what is expected; differing in some way from the norm.unprecedented
English
Adjective
(-)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.}}