unoriginal

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adjective un·orig·i·nal \ ˌən-ə-ˈrj-jə-nᵊl , -ˈrij-nəl \

Definition of unoriginal

:lacking originality :not original

an unoriginal idea

a movie with a highly unoriginal plot

an unoriginal thinker

See unoriginal defined for English-language learners

Recent Examples of unoriginal from the Web

Oh Lorde!!!! #VMAs pic.twitter.com/hnb7E1GrSk -- Natasa (@NatasaKve) August 27, 2017 Critics, however, called it unoriginal.

— the tylt, AL.com, "Best-dressed at the MTV VMAs: Katy Perry or Lorde?," 28 Aug. 2017
But the cold-lunch alternative doesn't have to mean unoriginal sandwiches, sad desk salads, or caving and eating out.

— alexa tucker, SELF, "17 High-Protein Lunches You Don't Need to Reheat at Work or School," 8 Aug. 2017
Leitch’s showcase is an unrelenting and unoriginal indoor fight sequence modeled after Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy.

— armond white, National Review, "From the Land of the Moon," 28 July 2017
Too bad the Titan suffers from an unoriginal design, a rougher ride than rivals, and obsolete infotainment.

— eric stafford, Car and Driver, "2017 Nissan Titan," 21 July 2017
A young generation of authors in Spain belittled the stories in social-realist novels as predictable and technically unoriginal.

— alvaro santana-acuña, The Atlantic, "One Hundred Years of Solitude," 22 May 2017
Perhaps the attack itself, despite its implausible scale and terrifying spectacle, was itself a relic: unoriginal and derivative, the product of too many Hollywood movies.

— the washington post, The Denver Post, "“Fallen Glory” surveys the world’s lost wonders and lesser structures," 20 Apr. 2017
The rest of the film is the work of a puppet master who works with an admirable but unoriginal industrial efficiency, retrofitting characters and their lives to fit the mechanical dictates of a simplistic scare story.

— richard brody, The New Yorker, "The Real Spoiler in M. Night Shyamalan’s “Split”," 27 Jan. 2017

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'unoriginal.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

First Known Use of unoriginal

1749

unoriginal Synonyms

Synonyms

apish, canned, emulative, epigonic (or epigonous), formulaic, mimetic, mimic, slavish, imitative

Antonyms

archetypal (also archetypical), original

Related Words

copied, cribbed, plagiarized; artificial, bogus, factitious, fake, false, imitation, man-made, mock, sham, simulated, substitute, synthetic; duplicated, photocopied, reduplicated, reproduced, transcribed; backup; counterfeit, deceptive, forged, fraudulent, misleading; cut-and-dried (also cut-and-dry), perfunctory, routine, uninspired

Near Antonyms

authentic, bona fide, legitimate, true; genuine, natural, real; classic, ideal, model

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