all of a sudden

Idioms  

1. Entirely without warning, abruptly, as in All of a sudden the lights went out. In Shakespeare's day the common phrase was of a sudden, the word all being added in the late 1600s. Also see all at once, def. 2.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

all of a sudden

I don’t really know when it began to happen, but all of a sudden, seemingly overnight, friends I knew were forcing me to accompany them to search for packs of Pokémon cards.

From Slate ● Aug. 31, 2026

“I can’t all of a sudden erase my conservative views of the past 16 years in the Missouri Legislature,” he said.

From Salon ● Aug. 25, 2026

“So all of a sudden they’re shopping across categories across items, not spearfishing for that single item that they need one by one,” she said.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026

A woman in Chiba's Ichikawa city told NHK the rain "happened all of a sudden so it was a complete surprise".

From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026

The room goes library quiet, and then all of a sudden, Rock cracks up laughing.

From "Isaiah Dunn Is My Hero" by Kelly J. Baptist

Related Words

• precipitously
• suddenly
• unexpectedly