What's the difference between strange and surprising?

Strange


Definition:

  • (superl.) Belonging to another country; foreign.
  • (superl.) Of or pertaining to others; not one's own; not pertaining to one's self; not domestic.
  • (superl.) Not before known, heard, or seen; new.
  • (superl.) Not according to the common way; novel; odd; unusual; irregular; extraordinary; unnatural; queer.
  • (superl.) Reserved; distant in deportment.
  • (superl.) Backward; slow.
  • (superl.) Not familiar; unaccustomed; inexperienced.
  • (adv.) Strangely.
  • (v. t.) To alienate; to estrange.
  • (v. i.) To be estranged or alienated.
  • (v. i.) To wonder; to be astonished.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) We knew it would be a strange match because they had to come out and play to win to finish third,” Benitez said afterwards.
  • (2) After friends heard that he was on them, Brumfield started observing something strange: “If we had people over to the Super Bowl or a holiday season party, I’d notice that my medicines would come up short, no matter how good friends they were.” Twice people broke into his house to get to the drugs.
  • (3) However, growing accustomed to “this strange atmosphere”, the Observer man became dazzled by Burgess’s “brilliance and charm”.
  • (4) Nonetheless some strange theories have been floated.
  • (5) The effect on milk yield, milk leucocyte concentration, and milk prolactin of dominance rank and introduction of "strange" cows into a group was studied.
  • (6) Perhaps strangely, it was the second remark that troubled me more than the possibility that humanity would be extinguished by my hand.
  • (7) "When I look at a lot of other bands, it does seem that we're the strange minority," says drummer, Jeremy Gara, who, with his standy-up hair and dishevelled clothes, seems the most old-school indie musician of them all.
  • (8) Britons certainly divided over that strange, heady Diana week in 1997 and again over how to mark the millennium.
  • (9) Having always voted Conservative, he says that Labour's increasing doubts about HS2 suggest that they may be more deserving of his vote, something that clearly feels very strange indeed.
  • (10) When you ask for the phone numbers or names or addresses they are, strangely, unavailable."
  • (11) The banalities of a news conference take on a strange significance when the men who summon the world's cameras are members of a feared insurgent group that banned television when they ruled Afghanistan and sheltered al-Qaida.
  • (12) Training grounds during a World Cup turn out to be a strange little bubble of a world.
  • (13) I was an immigrant, although a reluctant one, and I was living in a huge strange country that resembled the America I'd encountered in books and in films so much less than I had expected.
  • (14) When female voles were allowed contact with the stud male for only 1 h at the time of mating, 55% exhibited pregnancy failure when exposed to a strange male 48 h later.
  • (15) As Nelson Mandela lay in the open casket , his features both familiar and strange, a crisply suited Robert Mugabe gazed down at him through his dark glasses for a long, still, silent moment.
  • (16) When my floor was dirty, I rose early, and, setting all my furniture out of doors on the grass, bed and bedstead making but one budget, dashed water on the floor, and sprinkled white sand from the pond on it, and then with a broom scrubbed it clean and white... Further - and this is a stroke of his sensitive, pawky genius - he contemplates his momentarily displaced furniture and the nuance of enchanting strangeness: It was pleasant to see my whole household effects out on the grass, making a little pile like a gypsy's pack, and my three-legged table, from which I did not remove the books and pen and ink, standing amid the pines and hickories ...
  • (17) 12.24am BST The Labor leader has seen the decision by the Greens to back in Tony Abbott in reintroducing fuel tax indexation in this budget, but strangely he has not seen their decision to oppose the deficit tax, even though it was announced at the same time.
  • (18) Strange in that Chomsky's interview was given to the state-owned news agency at about the same time as another arm of the Russian state despatched two Tupolev Tu-95 strategic bombers for a cheeky incursion into the Nato-protected zone off Scotland's north coast .
  • (19) To explain these contentions, the history, strengths, and limits of reductionist thinking are discussed, and aspects of chaos science, such as the butterfly effect and strange attractors, are described.
  • (20) Strangely enough, we continue to endure retrograde policy approaches that are more likely to further entrench a sense of disempowerment among Aboriginal people, rather than acknowledge and enable individual empowerment.

Surprising


Definition:

  • (p. pr. & vb. n.) of Surprise
  • (a.) Exciting surprise; extraordinary; of a nature to excite wonder and astonishment; as, surprising bravery; a surprising escape from danger.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) If Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough, who bought the island in 1738, were to return today he would doubtless recognise the scene, though he might be surprised that his small private buildings have grown into a sizable hotel.
  • (2) Surprisingly, the clonal elimination of V beta 6+ cells is preceded by marked expansion of these cells.
  • (3) Given Australia’s number one position as the worst carbon emitter per capita among major western nations it seems hardly surprising that islanders from Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu and other small island developing states have been turning to Australia with growing exasperation demanding the country demonstrate an appropriate response and responsibility.
  • (4) S&P – the only one of the three major agencies not to have stripped the UK of its coveted AAA status – said it had been surprised at the pick-up in activity during 2013 – a year that began with fears of a triple-dip recession.
  • (5) Why is it so surprising to people that a boy like Chol, just out of conflict, has thought through the needs of his country in such a detailed way?” While Beah’s zeal is laudable, the situation in South Sudan is dire .
  • (6) Diabetic retinopathy (an index of microangiopathy) and absence of peripheral pulses, amputation, or history of myocardial infarction, stroke, or transient ischemic attacks (as evidence of macroangiopathy) caused surprisingly little increase in relative risk for cardiovascular death.
  • (7) Just don’t be surprised if they ask you to repair their phones, too.
  • (8) One surprising finding is that the MAL1g-encoded maltose permease exhibits little sequence homology to the MAL1-encoded maltose permease though they appear to be functionally homologous.
  • (9) Surprisingly, however, despite the severe defect in viral DNA replication, the synthesis of a few species of viral late proteins continues in cells infected by some of the E1B mutants.
  • (10) Thus, during treatment with ethambutol visually (pattern) evoked potentials may reveal a surprisingly high percentage of subclinical optic neuritis.
  • (11) Somewhat surprisingly then, in view of the mechanisms in mammals, birds do not seem to use this seasonal message in the photoperiodic control of reproduction.
  • (12) Infants were habituated to models posing either prototypically positive displays (e.g., happy expressions) or positive expression blends (e.g., mock surprise).
  • (13) The BBA statistics director, David Dooks, said: "It was no surprise to see the January mortgage figures falling back from December, when transactions were being pushed through to beat the end of stamp duty relief.
  • (14) "We knew people would be interested in the announcement, but it's fair to say that the scale of the excitement, right across the world, took us all by surprise.
  • (15) When you have champions of financial rectitude such as the International Monetary Fund and OECD warning of the international risk of an "explosion of social unrest" and arguing for a new fiscal stimulus if growth continues to falter, it's hardly surprising that tensions in the cabinet over next month's spending review are spilling over.
  • (16) Myelodysplastic preleukemic syndromes (MDPS) and acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) share a surprising in vivo sensitivity to the hormonally acting 13 cis or all trans retinoic acids (transRA).
  • (17) Apple has come out fighting, which is no surprise given the remarkable success that the company has seen in recent years.
  • (18) His words surprised some because of an impression that the US was unwilling to talk about these issues.
  • (19) A teaching union has questioned appointment of a trustee of Britain's largest academy chain group as chairman of the schools regulator Ofsted , in what was a surprise announcement meant to calm some of the internal conflicts within the coalition.
  • (20) Given that a post-poll economy still registers as a crucial issue among undecided voters, and that matters economic are now his BBC day job, that was hardly surprising.