astounding
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of astounding
Explanation
Astounding is an adjective that describes something bewildering, like the astounding sight of a dog walking on two legs. When something is astounding, you might find yourself unable to speak — after all, astounding comes from the Middle English word astouned, meaning "to stun." If you see something that's astounding, you might just stare and stare, speechless. Astounding also describes something so surprisingly impressive that it overwhelms, like the astounding news that you just won the lottery.
Vocabulary lists containing astounding
30 GRE Words Beginning with "A"
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Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address (1865)
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Wolf Hollow
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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.
Felix Salmon, Elizabeth Spiers, and Emily Peck discuss what this deal signals about the astounding amounts of money being thrown around the relatively niche market of A.I. investment.
From Slate ● Sep. 5, 2026
The numbers involved in AI are truly astounding.
From Barron's ● Aug. 31, 2026
This astounding dilemma is brought to you by the Angels, and their combination of a consistent focus on affordability and a consistently bad team.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 29, 2026
They popped up a swarm of short-lift attackers to map out Hugging Face’s network and took an astounding 17,000 actions during the hack, far more than a human would.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 26, 2026
By the end of the season Salatin’s animals will have transformed his grasses into an astounding amount of food.
From "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan
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Definitions 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.