SUMMARYThis paper investigates the problem of global disturbance rejection for switched nonlinear systems in strictfeedback form with unknown exosystem where the solvability of the disturbance rejection problem for subsystems is not assumed. First, a sufficient condition for the solvability of the global disturbance rejection problem is given. As an extension of the classic concept of internal model for non-switched systems, a new concept of switched internal model is proposed. Second, in order to solve the problem in question, a constructive adaptive control methodology is established on the basis of the multiple Lyapunov functions method, backstepping, and the changing supply functions technique. Finally, an example is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.