unusual
un·u·sual/ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/adjective, noun
unusual is spelled U-N-U-S-U-A-L, 3 syllables: un·u·sual. The wrong spelling people search most is unusal: about 90 Bing searches a month in the United States (September 2025 to August 2026), about 1 in 18 of all searches for the word. Unusual is an adjective meaning “Not usual, out of the ordinary”.
How many letters and syllables are in unusual?
| Letters | 7: U-N-U-S-U-A-L |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 3: un·u·sual |
| In writing | 28 times per million words; the 3,288th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | 1; the most searched, unusal, about 90 Bing searches a month (all of them) |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026).
How do you spell unusual?
Unusual is spelled U-N-U-S-U-A-L. One wrong spelling is searched or written often enough to measure; together they are about 1 in 18 of the searches for unusual in either form.
Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026). Wrong spellings are taken from Wiktionary entries tagged "misspelling" and its obsolete or nonstandard forms, Wikipedia's Lists of common misspellings and the codespell dictionary, then measured. The proofreader's marks show the change that corrects each one.
How common is unusual?
Unusual appears 28 times per million words in written English, the 3,288th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce unusual?
- /ʌnˈjuːʒ(u)əl/
Unusual has 3 syllables, split un·u·sual in writing.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-unusual.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Forms of unusual
- more unusual comparative
- most unusual superlative
- unusuals plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does unusual mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
adjective
- 1
Not usual, out of the ordinary.
Every once in a while, though, Idol comes across an unusual talent who just blows everyone away.
noun
- 1
Something that is unusual; an anomaly.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Unusual in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense not usual:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | inhabituel, insolite |
| German | ungewöhnlich, unüblich, ungebräuchlich |
| Portuguese | inesperado, inusual |
| Spanish | inusual, inusitado |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does unusual come from?
From un- + usual.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).