unusual

«unusual» in Mova's school dictionary: Not usual or common; different from what normally happens… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adjective (unusual, more unusual, most unusual)

meaning for a pupil

1) Not usual or common; different from what normally happens or what you normally see. tree →

2) Interesting because it is different: "an unusual hat". tree →

sense in the lessons

In science, unusual results in an experiment should be checked and repeated. In safety lessons, unusual smells, sounds or behaviour (gas smell, smoke, a stranger asking odd questions) are warning signs to tell an adult. In stories, something unusual often starts the adventure. Phrases: something unusual, unusual for, it's unusual to, nothing unusual.

examples

• It's unusual to see snow in April here. tree →
• She wore an unusual purple hat. tree →
• The scientist noticed an unusual result. tree →
• Tell an adult if you smell something unusual, like gas. tree →
• It is unusual for our cat to hide. tree →
• Nothing unusual happened today. tree →
• I happen to have a most unusual shadow. tree →

note

"Un-" means "not": unusual = not usual. The adverb is "unusually". Use "an": an unusual idea. In maths and data, an unusual value far from the others is called an outlier.

In the corpora

• It shows the worst moments, because what is new and unusual today is what makes the news.
• AI is good at the usual cases it has seen many times and often weak at unusual or brand-new ones.
• Banks use AI to spot unusual spending and block possible fraud; sometimes a real payment is blocked by mistake.
• "A real character" is a polite way to call someone odd, unusual or difficult.
• Knowing what is normal in a place makes it easier to spot something unusual.

Trees and pragmatics

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