Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Happening without warning; unforeseen: a sudden storm.
- adj. Characterized by hastiness; abrupt or rash: a sudden decision. See Synonyms at impetuous.
- adj. Characterized by rapidity; quick and swift.
- idiom. all of a sudden Very quickly and unexpectedly; suddenly.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Happening without notice, instantly and unexpectedly; immediate; instant.
- Found or hit upon unexpectedly.
- Hastily made, put in use, employed, prepared, etc.; quick; rapid.
- Hasty; violent; rash; precipitate; passionate.
- In zoology, abrupt; sharply defined from neighboring parts: as, a sudden antennal club; a sudden truncation. Synonyms Unexpected, unanticipated, unlooked-for, abrupt.
- n. That which is sudden; a surprise; an unexpected occurrence.
- Suddenly; unexpectedly.
Wiktionary
- adj. Happening quickly and with little or no warning, snell.
- adv. poetic Suddenly.
- n. obsolete An unexpected occurrence; a surprise.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Happening without previous notice or with very brief notice; coming unexpectedly, or without the common preparation; immediate; instant; speedy.
- adj. Hastly prepared or employed; quick; rapid.
- adj. obsolete Hasty; violent; rash; precipitate.
- adv. rare Suddenly; unexpectedly.
- n. An unexpected occurrence; a surprise.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. happening without warning or in a short space of time
Etymologies
- From Middle English sodain, from Anglo-Norman sodein, from Old French sodain, subdain ("immediate, sudden"), from Vulgar Latin *subitānus ("sudden"), from Latin subitaneus ("sudden"), from subitus ("sudden", literally, "that which has come stealthily"), originally the past participle of subire ("to come or go stealthily"), from sub ("under") + ire ("go"). (Wiktionary)
- Middle English sodain, from Old French, from Vulgar Latin *subitānus, from Latin subitāneus, from subitus, from past participle of subīre, to approach stealthily : sub-, secretly; see sub- + īre, to go; see ei- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“But the term sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS, wasn't coined until the 1960s when it was declared a medical disorder.”
WN.com - Articles related to Preventing Tobacco Addiction Among Our Women
“The term sudden infant death syndrome (Sids) was introduced in 1969 as a recognised category of natural death that carried no implication of blame for bereaved parents.”
“The term sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) was introduced in 1969 as a recognised category of natural death that carried no implication of blame for bereaved parents.”
“Why all the sudden is a public health option which would compete with private insurers be such a bad thing? gl, Pittsburgh”
Conrad: Dems lack votes to pass health care reform on their own
“Why all of a sudden is there a great big rush?" asked Eve Zindorf, a member of the Karington Advisory Board, which is supposed to be alerted when the developer wants to make substantial changes to the project.”
The Washington Post: Some Prince George's residents view townhouse bill with suspicion
“There is the clean sweep of the sudden revelation; there is the conspicuous use of the word "sudden"; there is the replacement of youthful optimism with middle-aged alienation.”
“Why all of the sudden is there a fanboy following for Ryan Gosling?”
“Flo Conway and Jim Siegelman have written an excellent book on what they call sudden personality change, or "snapping.”
Valerie Tarico: Christian Belief Through the Lens of Cognitive Science: Part 4 of 6
“This time Mr. Bush spoke of what he called a sudden thaw after decades of political stagnation in the Middle East, citing recent elections in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Palestinian territories and promising support for reformers elsewhere.”
“Police have said there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding Rypien's death, which they described as sudden.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘sudden’.
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EU Buzz - Lisbon Treaty
All words of the Lisbon Treaty
(Persons' names, foreign and grammatical words have been eliminated, MWEs have been split up into individual words. Capitalization has been retained if r...health, follow, condition, meeting, minister, beginning, chapter, information, language, remain, covered, respect and 2614 more...
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Time
clock, forever, never, ever, ago, when, then, now, past, present, future, timeline and 119 more...
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chefjulianin's Words
high, ice, recipe, bear, bare, lady, food, identity, sudden, spooky, away, cook and 142 more...
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Basic English Vocabulary
Very basic words for ESL students.
contemplate, container, consumer, consultant, consensus, conscious, conscience, connection, confusion, confront, conflict, confident and 4334 more...
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fbharjo's Words
jumelle, kef, kenspeckle, lautitious, essentic, pilpulistic, impavid, cicurant, clou, chrysostomic, miasma, teleology and 1625 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
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descriptive
For narratives or more fictional work
disheveled, unkempt, reckless, malice, finicky, lecherous, quirky, slander, chagrin, vicarious, commandeer, awkward and 38 more...
Tweets
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