atypical

UK/eɪˈtɪp.ɪ.kəl/

adjectiveC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #11,405 of 15,258leans written

Atypical means not following the usual pattern. An atypical case, atypical symptoms, atypical behaviour.

In medicine it matters a great deal, because atypical symptoms are the ones that get missed — heart attacks in women present atypically often enough to be dangerous. The a- means not, as in amoral. It is a neutral word, unlike abnormal.

Definitions of atypical

1adjectiveatypicalNot following the usual pattern.C1
“A snowstorm in May is atypical for this part of the country.”

atypical is a quality of difference.

Where it comes from

Proto-Indo-European
*(s)tewp-
Latin
typicalis
English
typical
English, today
atypical

Built from

τύπος · Ancient Greek — mark, impression, type

From a- + typical. typical comes from Latin typicalis, from Latin typicus (“typical”), from Ancient Greek τυπικός (“of or pertaining to a type, conformable, typical”), from τύπος (“mark, impression, type”), equivalent to typic + al and type + ical.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire

Practise this word

atypical in the wild

Atypidae, also known as atypical tarantulas or purseweb spiders, is a spider family containing only three genera.
Atypical tarantula
When it develops independently from another disease, it is called primary atypical pneumonia (PAP).
Atypical pneumonia
Despite its name, "atypical" depression does not mean it is uncommon or unusual.
Atypical depression
Individuals with features of atypical depression tend to report an earlier age of onset (e.g., while in high school) of their depressive episodes.
Atypical depression

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the typicalis family

typical typically

atypical — used about once every 8,972 pages · #11,405 · point at the bar for the others

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