"unintended consequence" meaning in All languages combined

See unintended consequence on Wiktionary

Noun [English]

Forms: unintended consequences [plural]
Etymology: Popularized by sociologist Robert K. Merton. Head templates: {{en-noun}} unintended consequence (plural unintended consequences)
  1. (originally sociology, in the plural) An outcome of a purposeful action that is not intended or foreseen. Wikipedia link: Robert K. Merton Tags: in-plural Categories (topical): Sociology Synonyms: unanticipated consequence, unforeseen consequence Related terms: collateral damage, side effect, you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs
    Sense id: en-unintended_consequence-en-noun-UcXgMcjB Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header

Inflected forms

Download JSONL data for unintended consequence meaning in All languages combined (1.6kB)

{
  "etymology_text": "Popularized by sociologist Robert K. Merton.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "unintended consequences",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "unintended consequence (plural unintended consequences)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "topical",
          "langcode": "en",
          "name": "Sociology",
          "orig": "en:Sociology",
          "parents": [
            "Social sciences",
            "Sciences",
            "Society",
            "All topics",
            "Fundamental"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2019 May 4, Bret Stephens, “Facebook’s Unintended Consequence”, in The New York Times, →ISSN",
          "text": "Over the past several years we’ve learned a lot about the unintended consequences of social media. Platforms intended to bring us closer together make us angrier and more isolated.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An outcome of a purposeful action that is not intended or foreseen."
      ],
      "id": "en-unintended_consequence-en-noun-UcXgMcjB",
      "links": [
        [
          "sociology",
          "sociology"
        ],
        [
          "outcome",
          "outcome"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(originally sociology, in the plural) An outcome of a purposeful action that is not intended or foreseen."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "collateral damage"
        },
        {
          "word": "side effect"
        },
        {
          "word": "you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs"
        }
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "unanticipated consequence"
        },
        {
          "word": "unforeseen consequence"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "in-plural"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Robert K. Merton"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "unintended consequence"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "Popularized by sociologist Robert K. Merton.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "unintended consequences",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "unintended consequence (plural unintended consequences)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "collateral damage"
    },
    {
      "word": "side effect"
    },
    {
      "word": "you can't make an omelette without breaking eggs"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "en:Sociology"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2019 May 4, Bret Stephens, “Facebook’s Unintended Consequence”, in The New York Times, →ISSN",
          "text": "Over the past several years we’ve learned a lot about the unintended consequences of social media. Platforms intended to bring us closer together make us angrier and more isolated.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An outcome of a purposeful action that is not intended or foreseen."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "sociology",
          "sociology"
        ],
        [
          "outcome",
          "outcome"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(originally sociology, in the plural) An outcome of a purposeful action that is not intended or foreseen."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "in-plural"
      ],
      "wikipedia": [
        "Robert K. Merton"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "unanticipated consequence"
    },
    {
      "word": "unforeseen consequence"
    }
  ],
  "word": "unintended consequence"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-06-29 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-06-20 using wiktextract (d4b8e84 and b863ecc). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.