Meanings
- not comparableLacking prior examples; unprecedented.
At the height of Napoleon's unexampled conquests […]
1888–1891, Herman Melville, “[Billy Budd, Foretopman.] Chapter VII.”, in Billy Budd and Other Stories, London: John Lehmann, published 1951, →OCLC2 more examples
Fires from beneath, and meteors from above / Portentous, unexampled, unexplained, / Have kindled beacons in the ſkies, and th' old / And crazy earth has had her ſhaking fits / More frequent, and foregone her uſual reſt.
1785, William Cowper, “Book II. The Time-piece.”, in The Task, a Poem, […], London: […] J[oseph] Johnson; […], →OCLC, page 48Shortly after this Mrs. Wix looked so ill that it was to be feared her ladyship had treated her to some unexampled passage.
1897 October 16, Henry James, What Maisie Knew, Chicago, Ill.; New York, N.Y.: Herbert S. Stone & Co., →OCLC
Synonyms & antonyms
adjectivehaving no previous example or precedent or parallel
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Proto-Indo-European*né
- Proto-Indo-European*n̥-
- Proto-Germanic*un-
- Proto-West Germanic*un-
- Old Englishun-
- Middle Englishun-
- Englishun-
- Englishexampled
- Englishunexampled
Translations
Bulgarian безпрецедентен
- безпрецедентен (bezprecedenten)lacking prior examples — see also unprecedented, unheard-of
Czech bezpříkladný
- bezpříkladnýlacking prior examples — see also unprecedented, unheard-of
Danish eksempelløs
- eksempelløslacking prior examples — see also unprecedented, unheard-of
German beispiellos
- beispielloslacking prior examples — see also unprecedented, unheard-of
Hungarian példátlan, példa nélküli
- példátlanlacking prior examples — see also unprecedented, unheard-of
- példa nélkülilacking prior examples — see also unprecedented, unheard-of
- példa nélkül állólacking prior examples — see also unprecedented, unheard-of
Polish bezprzykładny
- bezprzykładnylacking prior examples — see also unprecedented, unheard-of
Russian бесприме́рный
- бесприме́рный (besprimérnyj)lacking prior examples — see also unprecedented, unheard-of
Swedish exempellös
- exempellöslacking prior examples — see also unprecedented, unheard-of
Ukrainian безпри́кладний
- безпри́кладний (bezprýkladnyj)lacking prior examples — see also unprecedented, unheard-of
Cite this entry
unexampled. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unexampled
“unexampled.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unexampled. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “unexampled,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unexampled.
Source: unexampled on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.