SUDDEN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does sudden mean? 

• SUDDEN (adjective)
  The adjective SUDDEN has 1 sense:

1. happening without warning or in a short space of time

  Familiarity information: SUDDEN used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUDDEN (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Happening without warning or in a short space of time

Context example:

a sudden cure

Similar:

abrupt (exceedingly sudden and unexpected)

choppy; jerky (marked by abrupt transitions)

emergent (occurring unexpectedly and requiring urgent action)

explosive (sudden and loud)

fulminant (sudden and severe)

sharp (very sudden and in great amount or degree)

Also:

fast (acting or moving or capable of acting or moving quickly)

Antonym:

gradual (proceeding in small stages)

Derivation:

suddenness (the quality of happening with headlong haste or without warning)

 Context examples 

A sudden thought struck him, however, and he ran through the hall door and round to the lawn upon which the long French windows open.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) occurs when the heart develops an arrhythmia that causes it to stop beating.

(Cardiac Arrest, NIH: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute)

How does he know that he is going on well, or that there may not be a sudden change half an hour hence?

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Terminology associated with the sudden death syndrome type codelist of the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC) Standard Data Tabulation Model (SDTM).

(CDISC SDTM Sudden Death Syndrome Type Terminology, NCI Thesaurus)

It can cause sudden illness and death.

(Carbon Monoxide Poisoning, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

In my hand I held the tract containing the sudden death of the Liar, to which narrative my attention had been pointed as to an appropriate warning.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Causes for sudden weight loss can include: • Thyroid problems • Cancer • Infectious diseases • Digestive diseases • Certain medicines

(Body Weight, NIH)

Sudden contraction of the smooth muscles of the bronchial wall.

(Bronchospasm, NCI Thesaurus)

A disorder characterized by a sudden contraction of the smooth muscles of the bronchial wall.

(Bronchospasm, NCI Thesaurus/CTCAE)

After a couple of minutes' unbroken silence, Henry, turning to Catherine for the first time since her mother's entrance, asked her, with sudden alacrity, if Mr. and Mrs. Allen were now at Fullerton?

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)