all of a sudden

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.

Example Sentences

“If the Canadian government thinks it’s going to all of a sudden do a big deal with China, it should think again,” Clow said.

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"We're just doing our jobs, which is part of the federal government, and all of a sudden we became the enemy of the state," she said.

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“Then all of a sudden, we went back to our old recommendations,” Ball said.

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"September, October used to be peak season with pleasant weather but these days we see extreme weather all of a sudden and the temperature drops so quickly."

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“That then destabilized the Treasury market—because all of a sudden, you have all these sellers,” he says.

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Related Words

• precipitously www.thesaurus.com
• suddenly 
• unexpectedly