UNORTHODOX

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does unorthodox mean? 

• UNORTHODOX (adjective)
  The adjective UNORTHODOX has 2 senses:

1. independent in behavior or thought

2. breaking with convention or tradition

  Familiarity information: UNORTHODOX used as an adjective is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• UNORTHODOX (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Independent in behavior or thought

Synonyms:

irregular; maverick; unorthodox

Context example:

maverick politicians

Similar:

unconventional (not conforming to accepted rules or standards)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Breaking with convention or tradition

Context example:

an unorthodox lifestyle

Similar:

dissentient; recusant ((of Catholics) refusing to attend services of the Church of England)

dissident; heretical; heterodox (characterized by departure from accepted beliefs or standards)

iconoclastic (characterized by attack on established beliefs or institutions)

nonconforming; nonconformist (not conforming to established customs or doctrines especially in religion)

Reformed (of or relating to the body of Protestant Christianity arising during the Reformation; used of some Protestant churches especially Calvinist as distinct from Lutheran)

Attribute:

orthodoxy (the quality of being orthodox (especially in religion))

Antonym:

orthodox (adhering to what is commonly accepted)

 Context examples 

Any medical substance or procedure not generally accepted by orthodox western medicine or an unorthodox application of an otherwise accepted substance or procedure.

(Alternative Medicine, Direct, NCI Thesaurus)

New research lends credence to an unorthodox retelling of the story of early Earth that was first proposed by a geophysicist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California.

(Earth's mantle, not its core, may have generated planet's early magnetic field, National Science Foundation)