suddenly
Britishadverb
Explanation
If you're walking on a crowded street and you stop suddenly — abruptly and without warning — somebody walking behind you may bump into you. If you experience love at first sight, you've suddenly fallen in love. If you're driving at night and a deer jumps out in front of you, you might suddenly have to swerve to avoid it. Suddenly is the kind of adverb you might use a lot if you're describing the plot of an action movie, a mystery novel, or any story in which lots of unexpected things happen.
Vocabulary lists containing suddenly
A Need for Speed: Synonyms for "Fast"
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Beowulf vocabulary
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Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“Suddenly the floodgates were kind of opening. It was suddenly not about a silly faithful or traitor, you know?”
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2026
And with a sparkling arpeggio, we find ourselves suddenly in E-flat major, squinting in the sunlight.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 16, 2026
And why does it suddenly seem like celebrities everywhere are getting pregnant at older and older ages?
From Slate ● Oct. 16, 2026
However, the results do not mean that bacteria are suddenly capable of consuming the enormous amounts of conventional plastic already accumulating in the environment.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2026
I was leading Marlene by the ear, talking to her, as I often did, when she suddenly stopped, and lifted her head.
From "An Elephant in the Garden" by Michael Morpurgo
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Get a wordDefinitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
