English Dictionary |
ASTOUNDING
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Dictionary entry overview: What does astounding mean?
• ASTOUNDING (adjective)
The adjective ASTOUNDING has 2 senses:
1. bewildering or striking dumb with wonder
2. so surprisingly impressive as to stun or overwhelm
Familiarity information: ASTOUNDING used as an adjective is rare.
Dictionary entry details
Sense 1
Meaning:
Bewildering or striking dumb with wonder
Synonyms:
astounding; dumbfounding; dumfounding
Similar:
incredible; unbelievable (beyond belief or understanding)
Sense 2
Meaning:
So surprisingly impressive as to stun or overwhelm
Synonyms:
astonishing; astounding; staggering; stupefying
Context example:
the figure inside the boucle dress was stupefying
Similar:
impressive (making a strong or vivid impression)
Context examples
Sherlock Holmes’s answer was an astounding one.
(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
My tale was not one to announce publicly; its astounding horror would be looked upon as madness by the vulgar.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
"These hydrocarbons rain down on the surface, flow in streams and rivers, accumulate in lakes and seas, and evaporate into the atmosphere. It's quite an astounding world!"
(The First Global Geologic Map of Titan Completed, NASA)
This new moon has astounding support from other planets, including action-planet Mars, now in the perfect spot to motivate you from his perch in your eighth house of other people’s money.
(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)
Hey! Why, what the dickens has come to the fellow? said the old gentleman, as Laurie came running downstairs and brought up with a start of surprise at the astounding sight of Jo arm in arm with his redoubtable grandfather.
(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)
Sometimes, too, he stared around at his possessions in a dazed way as though in her actual and astounding presence none of it was any longer real.
(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)
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