unprovoked en · ADJ
Pronunciation
- /ˌʌnpɹəˈvoʊkt/
- (Southern-England) audio
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *né Proto-Indo-European *n̥- Proto-Germanic *un- Proto-West Germanic *un- Old English un- Middle English un- English un- English provoked English unprovoked From un- + provoked.
Meanings
-
Happening without provocation.
an unprovoked attack
A 22-year-old man has been jailed for life with a minimum term of 25 years for fatally stabbing 22-year-old Tashan Daniel in an unprovoked attack at Hillingdon Underground station on September 24 2019.
2020 September 9, “Network News: Man jailed for Hillingdon murder”, in Rail, page 25:Near-synonym: unmotivated
Three unprovoked stabbings across Manhattan Monday morning that left two men and one woman dead show how the criminal justice and mental health systems fail New Yorkers, the city’s mayor said.
2024 November 18, Nic F. Anderson, Melissa Alonso, John Miller, Sabrina Shulman and Sabrina Souza, “3 unprovoked fatal stabbings across Manhattan show failures of criminal justice and mental health systems, city’s mayor says”, in CNN:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| more unprovoked | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic | |
| most unprovoked | Degree=Sup | lexicographic |
Coordinates
random · senseless · inexplicable · pointless
Deriveds
Hypernyms
unjustifiable · unstimulated · unprompted · unjustified
Synonyms
Translations (12)
pl bezpodstawny (without provocation) · cmn 無緣無故的 /无缘无故的 (without provocation) · tr nedensiz (without provocation) · be несправакаваны (without provocation) · de unprovoziert (without provocation) · el απρόκλητος (without provocation) · ru неспровоци́рованный (without provocation) · uk неспровоко́ваний (without provocation) · tr sebepsiz (without provocation) · fi provosoimaton (without provocation) · la illacessītus (without provocation) · ro neprovocat (without provocation)