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 said something,” she told me, describing an incident from early in her tenure at the workplace retirement, benefits and insurance provider, “and all of a sudden a 25-page deck came back.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 2, 2026

In the video, Woods appears calm, kneeling on one knee as he tells officers: "I looked down at my phone, and all of a sudden, boom".

From BBC ● Sep. 2, 2026

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

"The world feels a lot less sparkly all of a sudden."

From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026

She deflated all of a sudden, like a popped balloon.

From "Maybe He Just Likes You" by Barbara Dee

Related Words

• precipitously
• suddenly
• unexpectedly