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orthodox

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Definition normal (describing thinking or behavior as commonly or traditionally accepted)

"Orthodox" (especially when capitalized) can also reference churches or religious orders that are more conservative than those that are non-orthodox.
  • The new findings challenge orthodox views.
orthodox = normal
  • She recommends unorthodox medical treatments.
    • unorthodox = unusual (uncommon or nontraditional)
    (editor's note:  The prefix "un-" in unorthodox means not and reverses the meaning of orthodox. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.)
  • She is an Orthodox Jew who will not drive from sunset Friday until after sunset Saturday.
    • orthodox = conforming to traditional practices
  • My parents are accustomed to my challenging their more orthodox views.
    • orthodox = normal or traditional
  • The great and invigorating influences in American life have been the unorthodox: the people who challenge an existing institution or way of life, or say and do things that make people think.
    William O. Douglas
    • unorthodox = nontraditional
    (editor's note:  The prefix "un-" in unorthodox means not and reverses the meaning of orthodox. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.)
  • Experienced guides would later question his decision to descend so far ahead of his clients—extremely unorthodox behavior for a guide.
    Jon Krakauer  --  Into Thin Air
    • unorthodox = unusual
    (editor's note:  The prefix "un-" in unorthodox means not and reverses the meaning of orthodox. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.)
  • Try, now, and give her a good orthodox New England bringing up, and see what it'll make of her.
    Harriet Beecher Stowe  --  Uncle Tom's Cabin
    • orthodox = normal (describing thinking or behavior as commonly or traditionally accepted)
  • the visitors ... took great pleasure in shocking them with unorthodox remarks.
    F. Scott Fitzgerald  --  This Side of Paradise
    • unorthodox = different than what is commonly thought
    (editor's note:  The prefix "un-" in unorthodox means not and reverses the meaning of orthodox. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.)
  • Orthodoxy means not thinking — not needing to think.
    George Orwell  --  1984
    • orthodoxy = conforming to commonly accepted beliefs and behaviors
  • I am surprised by how it... pleases me, his success in this unorthodox path he's chosen.
    Stephenie Meyer  --  New Moon
    • unorthodox = unusual
    (editor's note:  The prefix "un-" in unorthodox means not and reverses the meaning of orthodox. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.)
  • His unorthodox gamble had paid off.
    W. William Winokur  --  The Perfect Game
    • unorthodox = unusual (describing thinking or behavior as uncommon)
    (editor's note:  The prefix "un-" in unorthodox means not and reverses the meaning of orthodox. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.)
  • Only sometimes, they say, he didn't preach what was quite orthodox.
    James Joyce  --  Dubliners
    • orthodox = what is commonly accepted
  • It was hard for anyone with his training in orthodox science to accept the evidence that had now come into his hands.
    Arthur C. Clarke  --  Childhood's End
    • orthodox = normal (describing thinking or behavior as commonly or traditionally accepted)
  • So the minister, and the physician with him, withdrew again within the limits of what their Church defined as orthodox.
    Nathaniel Hawthorne  --  The Scarlet Letter
    • orthodox = what is commonly accepted
  • I was reluctant to admit the flaw in the tidy, familiar orthodoxy I had been taught.
    John Wyndham  --  The Chrysalids
    • orthodoxy = a commonly accepted belief or practice
  • the prosecutor's charge of uttering unorthodox opinions
    Fyodor Dostoyevsky  --  The Brothers Karamazov
    • unorthodox = in violation of what is commonly accepted
    (editor's note:  The prefix "un-" in unorthodox means not and reverses the meaning of orthodox. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.)
  • "You must think this a very unorthodox invasion, Doctor Baker," said Colonel Julyan, "and I apologise very humbly for disturbing you like this."
    Daphne du Maurier  --  Rebecca
    • unorthodox = unusual (not conforming to what is commonly acceptable)
    (editor's note:  The prefix "un-" in unorthodox means not and reverses the meaning of orthodox. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.)
  • ...and extremely unorthodox businesses in Russia.
    Stieg Larsson  --  The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
    • unorthodox = against what is commonly accepted
    (editor's note:  The prefix "un-" in unorthodox means not and reverses the meaning of orthodox. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.)
  • It's too unorthodox, too obvious for...
    Robert Ludlum  --  The Bourne Supremacy
    • unorthodox = non-standard (not what is commonly done)
    (editor's note:  The prefix "un-" in unorthodox means not and reverses the meaning of orthodox. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.)
  • Trying to explain McCandless's unorthodox behavior, some people have made much of the fact that...
    Jon Krakauer  --  Into the Wild
unorthodox = unusual
(editor's note:  The prefix "un-" in unorthodox means not and reverses the meaning of orthodox. This is the same pattern you see in words like unhappy, unknown, and unlucky.)

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