Something unusual is not common or ordinary. When you see an unusual bird in your backyard, it's not one of the regular sparrows or robins that show up every day. It might be a bright cardinal or an exotic bird that rarely visits your area.

Unusual things stand out because they're different from what normally happens. An unusual storm might drop snow in May, when everyone expects warm spring weather. An unusual flavor of ice cream might be lavender honey instead of vanilla or chocolate. When your normally quiet friend delivers an unusually funny joke, everyone notices because it surprises them.

The word can describe things that are rare, strange, or unexpected. A student might have an unusual talent for solving puzzles backward, or a teacher might assign an unusual project that involves building something instead of writing a paper. Sometimes unusual means wonderfully different, like an unusual gift that shows someone really thought about what you'd enjoy. Other times it just means odd or out of place.

Notice that unusual doesn't always mean bad. Many great discoveries and inventions seemed unusual at first. When the Wright brothers said they could build a flying machine, people thought it was an unusual idea, to say the least.