adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a rare/unusual event
▪ A sighting of a white deer is a rare event.
a strange/unusual incident
▪ Any unusual incidents should be reported to the police.
a strange/unusual request
▪ This is rather an unusual request.
an unusual feature
▪ The church’s most unusual feature is this window.
an unusual/unprecedented step (=something that is not usually done/has never been done before)
▪ Police last night took the unusual step of releasing photographs of him.
have a good/long/unusual etc menu
▪ The new restaurant on Fifth Street has an excellent menu.
strange/unusual/mysterious etc happenings
▪ There have been reports of strange happenings in the town.
(there is) something different/odd/unusual about sb/sth
▪ There was something rather odd about him.
unusual circumstances
▪ There were several unusual circumstances that night.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
highly
▪ The local committees varied greatly in their composition and operating procedures, some of which were highly unusual.
▪ It was a highly unusual presentation.
▪ You can also enjoy a highly unusual view of the area through the cameraobscura at Foredown Tower and Countryside Centre.
▪ Receiving such intensive medical therapy is highly unusual, allergists said.
▪ This was highly unusual, since most golfers prefer their caddies to be well out of the way for such crucial short putts.
▪ They were the ultimate female role models: highly unusual, gifted, respected women.
▪ Even so, the discovery of an unknown mass grave is highly unusual.
▪ This was highly unusual at that time.
more
▪ Many oaks provide intense leaf colour but for something more unusual look out for Nyssa sylvatica, the black gum.
▪ Now Dively is trying something even more unusual.
▪ This unusual country is about to become still more unusual.
▪ That she believes in it, and has seldom succumbed to cynicism about it, is perhaps more unusual.
▪ Even more unusual was the door because it too was of glass.
▪ But more unusual was her crackdown on heavy drinking among employees-also a largely male activity and a national plague.
▪ Rather more unusual is the single pair of Herons that have nested in the centre of Westham village for many years.
▪ The banked cycling track formed one of cricket's more unusual boundaries.
most
▪ As Mr. Wildblood, for the child, said, before the justices the case followed a most unusual course.
▪ The light is democracy and free enterprise, and that light is shining brighter and brighter in the most unusual places.
▪ She was a most unusual woman.
▪ The most unusual thing about him was the frozen expression on his face.
▪ The new maisonettes have turned out to be the most unusual and attractive living spaces.
▪ This keeps the place pristine, yet allows some of the most unusual yet sensational camping / hiking trips anywhere.
▪ Orford Ness is one of Britain's most unusual coastal features.
▪ In the limousine en route to the airport, Carter tried in a most unusual way to reach out to Park.
rather
▪ Another rather unusual query ... Is it possible to make your own garden gnomes - by casting them?
▪ A comprehensive, rather unusual wine list pushes diners into trying new wines in order to stay in an affordable price range.
▪ Uncle Fred had become a marine because of rather unusual circumstances.
▪ This rather unusual pecking instinct seems to ensure constant gratification for the male.
▪ All this made Zeinab an interesting woman but a rather unusual one.
▪ We call our rather unusual breed a Poodorbox!
▪ As I mentioned earlier, this rather unusual configuration was as a result of customer specification.
so
▪ Sometimes their life stories are so unusual that truth is stranger than fiction.
▪ We ended up spending as much time on my campus as his, which is so unusual.
▪ That's not so unusual, is it?
▪ After all, a ship lost at sea is a tragedy, but not so unusual.
▪ One house was so unusual that we stopped and walked around it.
▪ And it has succeeded, mainly because its premise is so unusual and unexpected.
▪ I would be so grateful if you could tell me the name of it, because it looks so unusual.
▪ Anyway, what was so unusual about it?
somewhat
▪ Because they lead somewhat unusual lives, college teachers are often subjected to this type of elaborate caricature.
▪ The manual is somewhat unusual in that it actually makes sense.
▪ The case has a somewhat unusual history, for this is the second hearing in this court concerning this case.
▪ A young man had epilepsy in a somewhat unusual form.
▪ In another sense, the current romance rage is somewhat unusual.
▪ There are two examples, albeit somewhat unusual ones.
▪ There were hundreds of pictures on that wall, forming a somewhat unusual collage.
very
▪ The Siege of Chattanooga had at least one very unusual aspect: Many of the besiegers were as miserable as the besieged.
▪ More so than those, however, it is a slightly unusual name, one fit for a very unusual man.
▪ It was a very unusual case.
▪ He awoke with a slight headache and a keen appetite, a very unusual combination for him.
▪ Amelia was a very unusual resident, the only person permitted by Mary Simkhovitch to use Greenwich House somewhat as a hotel.
■ NOUN
case
▪ Chimpanzees have been observed to indulge in mobbing in certain unusual cases.
▪ Yes, there are unusual cases.
▪ In some unusual cases one is willing to apply the term when only one of these conditions obtains.
▪ It was a very unusual case.
▪ Meanwhile, Tracey is about to embark on one of the most unusual cases of her career.
circumstances
▪ Consumer spending for services were boosted by some unusual circumstances.
▪ Uncle Fred had become a marine because of rather unusual circumstances.
▪ Two professional baseball players find their lives drawn together in unusual circumstances.
▪ Non-consultation may be justified on one or more of these grounds, but only in unusual circumstances.
▪ But such a decline was illusory - caused largely by the unusual circumstances of the 1931 General Election.
▪ Few appeared perturbed at beginning a new life in such unusual circumstances.
▪ Owing to the unusual circumstances there would have to be a coroner's inquest.
event
▪ This, it is being made clear, is an unusual event.
▪ An unusual event which cost me dear but it made the point to Chutra as to who was the leader around here.
▪ People knocking at the door was a very unusual event in this household.
feature
▪ An unusual feature is the very lengthy glossary running to 37 pages for 46 terms.
▪ Another unusual feature in this price class: outputs that enable those wishing to upgrade their home theater with separate power amplifiers.
▪ The long, stout spines are an unusual feature which discriminates this species from other gastropods.
▪ Then write an outstanding characteristic-a physical attribute, a result it brings, or an unusual feature.
▪ Something else you can look for is an unusual feature that may attract fish to it.
▪ Geophysicists had anticipated finding unusual features along the mid-ocean ridges since shortly after these plate borders were discovered.
▪ But two or three unusual features of last week's cut fired the imagination of New York's conspiracy theorists.
▪ The size, shape and placing of these windows did much to fashion the unusual features of the ascent stage's face.
name
▪ More so than those, however, it is a slightly unusual name, one fit for a very unusual man.
▪ What an unusual name for a gallery.
▪ It's an unusual name, isn't it?
▪ The house has a most unusual name too.
▪ There's no evidence to suggest that an unusual names increase the selling rate.
▪ Success rating out of 25-10 Stevee Mayes Landmark Duckstein-an unusual name.
▪ Stuart Clark asked him why the sail has such an unusual name?
step
▪ That is why Le Monde took the unusual step of acting as a mouthpiece for the representatives of underground movements.
▪ And it is taking the unusual step of buying ownership stakes in some projects.
▪ The situation has prompted the prison governor to take the unusual step of refusing to accept any more remand prisoners.
▪ This was an unusual step for Polybius, the more remarkable because he had taken part in the destruction of Carthage.
▪ In 1899 the company took the unusual step of appointing him general manager, a tribute to his administrative as well as engineering abilities.
way
▪ As he sat there breakfasting with his younger brother, he watched his father busying himself in an unusual way.
▪ One of those smaller enterprises was started several years ago in a very unusual way.
▪ She must have come to know her employers better than many others, and certainly in a quite different and unusual way.
▪ In the limousine en route to the airport, Carter tried in a most unusual way to reach out to Park.
▪ I can love my wife in the usual way and I can love Shinko in the unusual way!
▪ Jill succeeded because she dared to apply for a position in an unusual way.
▪ We often defend what we do in the most unusual ways - do you recognize any of these in you?
▪ She had a special, very unusual way of kicking.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ a very unusual flavor
▪ Alan's work shows unusual talent and originality.
▪ He had an unusual ability to rise above the prejudices of his generation.
▪ I first met Maria in unusual circumstances -- we were both stuck in a Brazilian airport.
▪ It's unusual for Dave to be late.
▪ It is unusual to find lakes of this size in Britain.
▪ Louise makes hats that are eye-catching and unusual.
▪ She had an unusual last name - Peachtree or Plumtree or something like that.
▪ We had snow in April, which is very unusual.
▪ We were beginning to worry. It was unusual for David to be so late.
▪ Yuri invited me to sample some of Osaka's more unusual restaurants.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ And it is taking the unusual step of buying ownership stakes in some projects.
▪ And yet it is not unusual to hear of problems.
▪ The long, stout spines are an unusual feature which discriminates this species from other gastropods.
▪ They had seen and heard nothing unusual.
▪ To a lawyer it was an unusual and dangerous kind of will.