unlooked-for

SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases

Not expected or planned
abrupt end
abrupt halt
abruptly
abruptness
ad hoc
inadvertence
inadvertency
inadvertent
inadvertently
inconceivable
sharpness
sine die
spirit
spontaneity
spontaneous
unsuspected
untimely
untoward
unwilled
unwitting

unforeseen | American Dictionary

unforeseen
adjective
us/ˌʌn·fərˈsin, -fɔr-/
unexpected and often unwanted:
Due to unforeseen circumstances, tonight’s performance has been canceled.

unforeseen | Business English

unforeseen
adjective
uk /ˌʌnfɔːˈsiːn/us
not expected:
The costs have risen by 20% owing to unforeseen circumstances.
The fund covers unforeseen expenses not paid for by insurance.
unforeseen complications/difficulties/problems

Examples of unforeseen

unforeseen
Intentions driven by habit can be interrupted, often by unforeseen or relatively dramatic events, causing the agent to deliberate and perhaps adopt another intention.
They instead tended to be accessed in school holidays, and when emergencies or unforeseen circumstances arose.
These results arose from patches that were unforeseen.
The more recent realities in my own career, however, were begun either by chance remark or unforeseen happenstance.
And now the collapse of the island's sole economic backbone drew the whole crown colony in a financial crisis of unforeseen extent.
But gentlemen, where have we allowed ourselves to be carried through so many hours by various problems and unforeseen discussions?
The interviews demonstrate that the communication between hospital and home care was often inadequate, and that some patients and carers experienced unforeseen difficulties and distress.
Moreover, at the implementation stage, businesses might discover unforeseen indirect negative impacts of reform on their individual firms.
Almost immediately, unforeseen problems developed, as sea ice blocked the location where the supplies for the western and central bases were to be unloaded.
This last image is not presently part of the body of mathematics, but it might eventually become so in some unforeseen way.
By small, imperceptible increments, new technologies have given us expanded possibilities in life while creating new unforeseen problems rarely considered while adopting new technology.
Especially, given the many unforeseen alternatives, how can one particular institution out of the many possible eventually be selected?
While it is hoped that prosthetics will solve more problems than they create, unforeseen physical limitations can further complicate performance.
This defeat, however, did not result from legislative or judicial intervention but rather from other, unforeseen, political changes.
Gathering information about successful models, best practices and unforeseen pitfalls will save time, money and frustration.
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.