unconventional

adjectiveC1Occasional — familiar, but not everyday · #8,864 of 15,258leans written

Unconventional means not following the usual way of doing things. An unconventional approach, unconventional in style, refreshingly unconventional.

It is neutral to positive where eccentric is not, and it describes methods more often than people. In warfare, unconventional has a technical meaning covering guerrilla and irregular operations. Note convention, which here means agreed practice rather than a meeting — the two senses come from the same Latin for coming together.

Definitions of unconventional

1adjectiveunconventionalNot following the usual way of doing things.C1
“The teacher used unconventional methods, like teaching history through songs.”
synonyms: unorthodox, offbeat

unconventional is a quality of unorthodoxy.

Where it comes from

From un- + conventional.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in Word Building

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unconventional in the wild

Reservoirs are broadly classified as conventional and unconventional reservoirs.
Petroleum reservoir
Some unconventional designs have entered commercial use, while others have only been demonstrated or are only theoretical concepts.
Unconventional wind turbines
Other tactics are seen as more unconventional and have only been used in a few instances, if at all.
Tactics of terrorism
However, these unconventional tactics are perceived by government officials and experts alike as serious potential threats.
Tactics of terrorism
A rapidly exchanging pool of the unconventional myosin-Ia protein binds to the actin core bundle, which turns over on a much slower timescale.
Unconventional myosin-Ia

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.

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