[Encyclopaedia] Unpredictable

Meanings:

1. we say that an event, or action, is unpredictable, when we don't have enough information to know how it will end up, to know what will happen or will be done, or when it is too difficult to find information;
2. we say that an event, or an action, is unpredictable when we cannot know how it will end up because it depends on luck, on chance.
    

Examples:

• Unpredictable is a word that is used to define a game when it is not possible to foresee who is going to win because it depends on luck (meaning 2) or when it is too complicated to predict the moves of you opponent (meaning 1).
  • I didn't succeed predicting who was going to be selected by the "counting rhyme" (meaning 1);
  • it is not predictable who is going to win a parlour game such as Monopoly (meaning 2);
  • it is not predictable if he will be able to answer to all the questions of the quiz (meaning 1);
  • The goos game, and Bingo, are unpredictable games because you don't know what numbers will be extracted, and it is not a matter of ability but it is a matter of luck (meaning 2);
  • the chess game is unpredictable when the too opponents are equally skilled (meaning 1);
  • unpredictable game: basketball, volleyball, football and tennis, because you never know the moves of your opponent (meaning 1);
  • card games because you don't know which cards your opponent is going to pick from the deck;
  • sports, because even when a team is less good then the other, it can be lucky and win anyway (meaning 1 the best  team underestimate the worst team - meaning 2 the worst team lucky);
  • The future is unpredictable (meaning 1+2);
  • A while ago, some persons pretended to be chiromancers in order to get money, but they couldn't really predict the future (meaning 2);

Synonyms and contraries:

• Contrary: predictable, foreseeable, intuit-able
• Synonyms: not foreseeable, not predictable, unpredictable, unknown, or random which is not a synonym [18 - 3 the discussion is open]

Related Weblabspaedia items:

Predictable, randomly - by chance, not randomly - not by chance 

Curiosities / Anecdotes / Miscellanea / History:

• unpredictable is an adjective (meaning 1-2);
• It is possible to predict the weather for the next couple of days, but not for weeks or months (meaning 1)
• When the heart was created, it was not predictable that after milliards of years humans were going to appear (meaning 1)
• Our teacher told us that she made peach jam, prunes jam, and marmalade, and she put it in identical jars; the jars' covers where wrapped with coloured Scottish tartan, tied with a ribbon. She put the jars in a basket and gave them to her friends, as Christmas presents; her friends chose the color of the tartan that they liked most, but the flavour of the jam (or marmalade) contained in the jar was unpredictable (meaning 1)
   

About this document

This document has been firstly produced by Class2A as a collective class work, it may then evolve thanks to the contribute of Class2A, of its pupils, and of other pupils involved in the project. The evolution of this document may happen either directly in English or in Italian with relative translation. 
 

Translation notes

The first version of this document was produced in Italian by Classe2A, then translated by Michele. The pupils of Classe2A knew the document was to be translated.
 

1. Pupils did not reach a complete agreement on the issues of if "random" can be considered as a synonym of "unpredictable"; as a consequence they voted, 18 of them said it was ok, and 3 of them said it was not.