unprecedented

«unprecedented» in Mova's school dictionary: Never happened or done before; the first of its kind — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

part of speech

adjective (unprecedented; formal)

meaning for a pupil

1) Never happened or done before; the first of its kind. tree →

2) Much greater than ever before: unprecedented numbers. tree →

sense in the lessons

Common in news and the formal exam voice: «unprecedented rainfall», «an unprecedented number of visitors». In maths and science, an unprecedented value is higher (or lower) than every earlier record.

examples

• The town had unprecedented flooding this spring. tree →
• The school saw an unprecedented number of entries for the art show. tree →
• The team's ten wins in a row were unprecedented. tree →
• Scientists recorded unprecedented heat in the city. tree →
• It was an unprecedented step for a child to speak at the meeting. tree →
• The book sold in unprecedented numbers. tree →

note

Say un-PRESS-i-den-tid. Takes «an». A precedent is an earlier example; unprecedented = with no earlier example. News sometimes overuses it for things that are only rare.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «unprecedented» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.