startling
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of startling
Explanation
Something that's startling is so unexpected that it shocks or surprises you. It would be startling to open your front door and see a clown standing there. Startling events or circumstances aren't necessarily frightening, though they can be. A surprise party, if it's planned right, is startling, and it can be startling the first time you meet your best friend's identical twin sister. Alarm clocks, smoke alarms, and barking dogs can all be equally startling. They startle you — and startle comes from start, with its Old English root styrtan, "to leap up."
Vocabulary lists containing startling
Amazing
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Marvelous
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Amazing
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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.
Given that a robot recently beat Usain Bolt's 100m sprint record, it's not the most startling achievement.
From BBC ● Sep. 17, 2026
Aerial reporters possess a peculiar intimacy with listeners, their voices and visuals filling cars and houses with their personalities as well as useful, even startling, real-time information.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026
Now, thanks to some startling revelations about AI agents collaborating deceptively to outwit their human overlords, doomers are ascendant.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 14, 2026
The shift is ordinary and still somehow startling.
From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2026
Even more startling, people seemed to like listening to her and to be genuinely inspired by her arguments.
From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson
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.
