- present participle of astound.
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.
From October 2024 through January 2025, as bitcoin lofted past $100,000, investors poured an astounding $20.7 billion into this group of ETFs.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
But doctors were ultimately able to save her leg – something she calls "astounding".
From BBC ● Jun. 16, 2026
One cup of Man Cereal has an astounding seven grams of saturated fat.
From Salon ● May 23, 2026
Sandisk has soared an astounding 3,218% over the last 12 months as its solid-state drives, or eSSDs, have become a crucial component in artificial-intelligence data centers.
From Barron's ● May 19, 2026
The disappearance was astounding, as astounding, certainly, as the Grand Conspiracy of Lowery Field, when all sixty-four men in a single barrack vanished one payday and were never heard of again.
From "Catch-22" by Joseph Heller
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.
