astonished

[ uh-ston-isht ]

adjective

1. filled with sudden and overpowering surprise or wonder; amazed:

   Before the eyes of the astonished crowd, the magician pulled off everything from simple card tricks to the disappearance of his lovely assistant.

verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of astonish.

Other Words From

• as·ton·ished·ly adverb
• un·as·ton·ished adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of astonished¹

First recorded in 1510–20, for an earlier sense; astonish + -ed ²( def ) for the adjective sense; astonish + -ed ¹( def ) for the verb sense

Example Sentences

He turns astonished tourist, as his camera sweeps up to the dome.

From ProPublica

Earl Stoddard, the county’s head of emergency management — who said he was “astonished” by the allocation — urged state officials to give the county of 1 million residents more doses.

From Washington Post

I’ve been lucky enough to taste hoshigaki in Japan, and as a new resident of Los Angeles, I am still astonished by the abundant persimmons growing freely in people’s backyards.

From Eater

Microbial ecologists were astonished to find cells inside basalt far under the ocean floor that have survived for perhaps more than 100 million years.

From Quanta Magazine

It’s worth putting this in context because it’s as astonishing a stat as any women’s basketball player has put up in recent memory.

From FiveThirtyEight

I was astonished by his work and very grateful that fate had thrown us together.

From The Daily Beast

That such a local issue had become national, even international, in scope astonished me.

From The Daily Beast

I was astonished at some of the figures you came up with, specifically about Jewish immigrants.

From The Daily Beast

Her indifference astonished Clark, who has been a cop for 29 years.

From The Daily Beast

People were astonished by his impassioned speeches at separatist meetings.

From The Daily Beast

Louis was not less astonished at this charge, than the Empress had been at the communication which aroused it.

From Project Gutenberg

No; there I stood, half-astonished, half-abashed while the Marquise continued on her knees and made her silent orisons.

From Project Gutenberg

He stared at his men, astonished and impatient at this strange disobedience.

From Project Gutenberg

The eye admireth at the beauty of the whiteness thereof, and the heart is astonished at the shower thereof.

From Project Gutenberg

I am always astonished, amazed and delighted afresh, and even as I listen I can hardly believe that the man can play so!

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• awed
• baffled
• befuddled
• dazed
• mystified
• perplexed
• puzzled
• rattled
• shocked
• startled
• stunned
• surprised