- present participle of startle.
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.
In one startling episode, a 9-year-old Jeannette was wakened one night in the family’s home in Phoenix.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
The private life of disgraced Silicon Valley startup founder Elizabeth Holmes will soon be aired to the public in a startling new documentary filmed in the 34 days before she went to prison.
From Barron's ● Oct. 9, 2026
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has some startling statistics.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 5, 2026
It's likely to be the most significant royal book since Prince Harry's startling 2023 memoir, Spare, and Andrew Lownie's 2025 book Entitled, which doomed Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor's reputation.
From BBC ● Sep. 21, 2026
He bared his bruised knuckles at me, a startling contrast to the elegant finery of his silver rings.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
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Get a wordDefinitions 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.
