Word for more than expected

We can say

considrable, substantial, dramatic, significant, remarkable, etc.

You are welcome

Thanks, crystal clear. I know these adjectives very well. But what I am looking for is different. It should means «more than expected», «more than desired», «more than one could hope»,…..

Oops, What about amazing?

My Longman Dic. says,

very good, especially in an

unexpected

way

I do not know whether it works or not. It’s just an attempt to offset the previous one. I am waiting for better suggestions.

«You did an excellent job on this; indeed, you exceeded our expectations. Well done!»

«You have excelled in this. Indeed, you far exceeded what was reasonable to expect. Nice job.»

I am a member of a photography website and when I critique a photo and it is well done, I often remark on the «impact» of that photo.

So, I might say:

«An excellent portrait; well-lit, nicely posed and with a well-chosen background. The parents should be thrilled with this shot.»

The italics indicate the «impact» of the photo.

We don’t know the exact context, but this would work for school work:

«An excellent job. Put this in a binder and keep it for your resume. Well done.»

There have been lots of suggestions here, but to my mind the only one that really meets your requirements as stated at the outset is «exceptional», and even then there are alternative interpretations which mean something other than «more than expected», so the use of that term is a little ambiguous without further explanation. However, if we can assume that you would be happy with a phrase rather than a single word, then I would suggest that the following meets your criteria perfectly:

• «he made better than expected progress»

This is not only unambiguous, it also means exactly what you stated, and is commonly used and understood, at least here in the UK.

How about: Superlative!

The problem with this, and many of the previous suggestions, is that someone doing better than expected somehow makes them superhuman, as if such a thing really is superlative, substantial, dramatic, significant, remarkable, amazing, astonishing, astounding, fantastic, phenomenal, remarkable, outstanding or prodigious, etc. It isn’t!

Assuming that targets are set realistically (and on a continuous scale*), then half the people involved will do worse than expected, the other half will do better than expected. That really isn’t anything so outstanding as all these suggestions imply! It’s just better than expected, no more and no less, and certainly not something that puts them in line for a knighthood or a Nobel prize!

* By continuous scale, I mean that the target is set (say) as a percentage rather than just Grade A, Grade B, Grade C etc. Obviously the fewer grades there are, the more people will fall within their target grade, but it still should not be considered superhuman for someone to achieve a better than expected grade.

To summarise, there’s really no need for such exaggerated superlatives simply because one is looking for a comparative adjective well within the normal range of human endeavor.

To summarise, there’s really no need for such exaggerated superlatives simply because one is looking for a comparative adjective well within the normal range of human endeavor.

I don’t know, mally pense. If I were getting treatment and the outlook was rather gloomy, and then the treatment cured me or even made me feel better than I could ever have hoped for, I’d be searching around for all the superlatives I could find.

I like liliput’s and Lis48’s suggestion of exceptional.

I also like the word unprecendented, because it implies some surprise and then need to make my point about it.

Still I like exceptional the best.

Also, no matter what word you choose, I think it adds depth without drama to add this to every choice:

You’ve made __________ progress. Much better than we would have ever expected.

AngelEyes

Strictly speaking though, it isn’t exceptional for someone to get an A Plus rather than an A, and it’s not exactly unprecedented either — surely it happens all the time?

Yes, if you want a gushing, proud parent to summarise their offspring’s acheivement, you could use any of the overblown adjectives that have been suggested, but for a rational appraisal by a school teacher preparing a report for example, I’d expect something more in line with the actual degree of comparative achievement.

Sure…I can see the point you’re trying to make, mally pense.

The circumstance is everything.

Still, I always expect enthusiasm with a statement that’s encouraging and filled with unexpected good outcomes. The superlative describes the raised eyebrows and shared pleasure of success.

Maybe I am easily excited by accomplishments.

Seriously, a wise teacher knows the value of a well-expressed superlative.

Perception is reality.

Thanks, mally pense, for your kind answer.

AngelEyes

Beside which, tphuong122002 has already made it clear he’s not looking for «Amazing». Taking your example, you’re suggesting an outlook which was rather gloomy, so shall we say a «C» or a «D»? Yes, to go from that to an «A Plus» would perhaps merit all the superlatives you could find (and there’s certainly plenty to choose from here), but not to go from a «A» to an «A Plus».

EDIT: Posted before I’d read your reply above.

The circumstance is everything.

Indeed, and we’re both speculating. I do take your point, and I do accept that my own may be a little dry, but both sides were worth expressing I think.

Let’s try turning this round:

Instead of commenting on what amazing etc progress this person has made, try to imagine for a moment that we don’t YET know anything about what progress has been made. Let’s say we then see the statement:

«He made prodigious progress»

Faced with the task of interpreting what this actually means, we may reach the conclusion, based on the WordReference definition of prodigious, that he made progress so great as to elicit awe, of momentous significance, far beyond what is usual in magnitude or degree.

What we won’t be able to interpret from it is that the progress he made was in fact the rather more ordinary achievement of getting a A+ rather than an A, the result perhaps of being a little more self-motivated and putting in just a little more effort than previously.

I’m not going to try this exercise with the other superlatives, but if this forum has any meaning at all, then surely the actual meaning of words and the requirements of the context for which they are intended should have some bearing. Going back to the original post, faced with the problem of finding something to replace «he made more than expected progress» which is clearly wrong, my proposed solution «he made better than expected progress» is somehow deemed unsatisfactory or inferior in favour of sheer invention and hyperbolae.

The mind boggles.

Now then Mrs B, You’ll be wanting to know how Johnny has done…

Yes please

Well, he’s made prodigious progress

Prodigious?

Yes, outstanding, exceptional

I see! Well that’s a bit of a shock, but how exactly do you mean?

Well, looking back at his records, we had him down to get an A, whereas in fact he’s got an A+

Oh… errm… is that all you meant….? I mean, don’t get me wrong, I’m very pleased obviously, but you had me excited for a moment, I thought perhaps we had another little Mozart on our hands

Unfortunately it doesn’t quite stretch that far… let’s just say he’s done better than expected

FIN

It’s a matter of establishing a norm.

I don’t think it’s very difficult to see that without a norm (created by experience, and thereby creating expectations) not many of these words like outstanding or exceptional have meaning.

The moment one acknowledges the norm, one can see that we do have many words meaning ‘more than expected’. It would be very odd if we didn’t, when one considers how often we need to express the idea. I think this consideration ought to have alerted someone denying that we have such words to the danger of putting forward this view. Of course in the absence of a norm, we have no point of comparison and cannot use such words.

The contradiction in Wandle’s sentence is immediately evident when we make the norm explicit and say

‘His achievement is oustanding for him, but, after all, that is what we expect’

— the point is that it isn’t outstanding for him if it’s what we expect — that fact alone should have rung alarm bells.

What Wandle’s sentence is trying to get away with saying is ‘His achievement is outstanding (by normal standards), but that is what we expect from him — ie. by his standards he did nothing outstanding.’

Of course if you shift the norm in the middle of the sentence, you can use these words in many kinds of ways, but you can’t get away from the fact that they are comparative words referring to a norm, and that norm is what we have come to expect as usual.

I’m surprised one needs to go on about this.

Look at the etymology of the words:

Outstanding — what is this standing out from? The norm.
Exceptional — from what? The norm.
Prodigious — what is a prodigy? 1 a person, especially a young one, with

exceptional

abilities. 2 an amazing or

unusual

thing. (The WR dictionary definitions) What is going to amaze? Something unusual. What is something unusual? Something which is not usual.

What do we normally expect? The norm, the usual. We expect to start day with breakfast, because that is the norm, that is what usually happens.

If something is usual, normal, we expect it to happen: if something is unusual, extraordinary, prodigious, exceptional, it is unexpected.

These words all contain the idea of exceeding expectations.

There are other words for falling below expectations, eg. egregious — ex-grego — out of the flock — not in the normal range —

not what we expect

.

Psychologists are of the view, I understand, that if we are deprived of patterns, things which we learn to perceive as normal, usual, we don’t know what to expect, and we go crazy. I find that very easy to understand.

Words such as ‘outstanding’, ‘amazing’, ‘prodigious’, do indeed mean ‘exceptional’ and ‘extraordinary’, but then even the extraordinary can be expected.

George Best was a footballer whose talent was often described as ‘prodigious’. Whenever he received the ball on the field, there was — as I can confirm from experience — a thrill of anticipation among the spectators, simply because he was expected to produce something prodigious: and he often did.

…
and, thirdly, that English …Mike did unexpectedly well on his math exam.»

‘Unexpected’ is an adjective, yes, but it still does not mean ‘more than expected’: it means ‘not expected’.
Bearing in mind the thread topic:
if you expect someone to answer ‘Yes’, but instead they say ‘No’, then the answer is unexpected: but it is not more than expected.

If you expect someone to make modest improvement in their studies, but instead the made great improvement, then that improvement was unexpected.