astonishment
noun
Simple meaning
The feeling that accompanies something extremely surprising.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
uhstahnihshmuhntSay the bold part a little louder.
IPA pronunciation (US)
əsˈtɑnɪʃmənt
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
The feeling that accompanies something extremely surprising
“He looked at me in astonishment.”
The feeling or experience of being astonished; great surprise.
Something very surprising.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C2 · Proficient
- Frequency
- Uncommon
- Typical Use
- Primarily written
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: The feeling that accompanies something extremely surprising
Used this way, astonishment is a common word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
“He looked at me in astonishment.”
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Moderate
- How common
- Common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use astonishment
- “He looked at me in astonishment.”noun
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Common Patterns and Combinations
How this word naturally appears with others.
Related Words
Connected to the same idea, not synonyms.
- delightnoun
- surpriseverb
- admirationnoun
- surprisedadjective
More about this wordSynonyms, forms, origin
Synonyms
Sense: feeling that accompanies something extremely surprising
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.