SUDDENNESS

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does suddenness mean? 

• SUDDENNESS (noun)
  The noun SUDDENNESS has 1 sense:

1. the quality of happening with headlong haste or without warning

  Familiarity information: SUDDENNESS used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUDDENNESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The quality of happening with headlong haste or without warning

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

abruptness; precipitance; precipitancy; precipitateness; precipitousness; suddenness

Hypernyms ("suddenness" is a kind of...):

haste; hastiness; hurriedness; hurry; precipitation (overly eager speed (and possible carelessness))

Derivation:

sudden (happening without warning or in a short space of time)

 Context examples 

Being already no stranger to the general rapidity of my aunt's evolutions, I was not surprised by the suddenness of the proposal, and said: “Yes.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

He was astounded at the suddenness of it.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

She arose with catlike ease and suddenness to her full height, her eyes flashing, her nostrils quivering like a deer's.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

With dramatic suddenness he struck a match, and by its light exposed a stain of blood upon the whitewashed wall.

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

The suddenness and the virulence of the exclamation startled Martin.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I think he had gone a bit off his head at the suddenness of it, for he raged and cursed at them like a lunatic.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

But that was only the effect of the suddenness of your alarm—of the shock.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

The suddenness of her reputed illness, the absence of her daughter, and probably of her other children, at the time—all favoured the supposition of her imprisonment.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Not more than five couple could be mustered; but the rarity and the suddenness of it made it very delightful, and she found herself well matched in a partner.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Horrified at the suddenness and severity of the attack, we carried him into the kitchen, where he lay back in a large chair, and breathed heavily for some minutes.

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