as in imitative
using or marked by the use of something else as a basis or model
critics faulted the novel for having a painfully unoriginal plot
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Recent Examples of unoriginal
In sales, trust is currency, and nothing burns trust faster than sounding unoriginal, lazy or shady.
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Don Markland, Forbes.com, 2 Sep. 2025
Meta said unoriginal content is when images or videos are reused without crediting the original creator.
—Zach Vallese, CNBC, 14 July 2025
These are deeply unoriginal ideas about the future.
—Alex Morris, Rolling Stone, 14 July 2025
The very best ones deviate from dupe culture, which often features unoriginal designs made with lower-quality materials.
—Irene Richardson, Footwear News, 3 Sep. 2019
See All Example Sentences for unoriginal
Recent Examples of Synonyms for unoriginal
Adjective
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Since then, whenever new tools to crank out communications have become available, somebody has flooded the zone with the fastest, most imitative material that could garner attention.—
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It may be borrowed or coined, named after a person, inspired by a place or imitative of a sound.—
Adjective
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Here, hotels can’t just scrape by with formulaic concepts.—
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The first charts to reflect this formulaic change will be on January 16, once YouTube has stopped sending its data.—
Cite this Entry
“Unoriginal.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/unoriginal. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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