astonish
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Synonym Usage
See surprise.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
astonishsimple
-
astonishessimple
-
have astonishedperfect
-
has astonishedperfect
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am astonishingprogressive
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are astonishingprogressive
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is astonishingprogressive
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have been astonishingperfect progressive
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has been astonishingperfect progressive
Past
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astonishedsimple
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had astonishedperfect
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was astonishingprogressive
-
were astonishingprogressive
-
had been astonishingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of astonish
First recorded in 1525–35; Middle English astonyen, astonen, probably from unattested dialectal Old French astoner, Old French estoner, from unattested Vulgar Latin extonāre, for Latin attonāre “to strike with lightning,” equivalent to ex- ex- 1, at- at- + tonāre “to thunder”; extended by -ish 2, perhaps reflecting unattested Anglo-French astonir, from dialectal Old French; see thunder
Explanation
Things that might astonish you: the discovery of life on another planet, a death-defying performance, and the number of dinosaurs a six-year old child can name. To astonish is to amaze and astound. Remember that astonish means more than surprised. It carries with it a feeling of being truly impressed. Astonish derives from the Latin tonare 'thunder.' When you are astonished, you're thunderstruck. If you plan to astonish someone, you might say before hand, "Wait until you see this. It's going to knock your socks off."
Vocabulary lists containing astonish
"Julius Caesar" by William Shakespeare, Act I
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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.
See Examples For:
Investment in artificial intelligence continues to astonish amid a technological arms race.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 6, 2025
Maggie Smith never failed to illuminate and astonish.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 9, 2024
She is now 95 and widowed, and her positivity and determination continue to astonish.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 2, 2024
But what would astonish — and mystify — earlier generations of U.S.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 27, 2021
It used to astonish us that everyone here has so many children: six or eight or nine.
From "The Poisonwood Bible" by Barbara Kingsolver
Throughout Mr. Stob’s narrative, their success astonishes onlookers and converts skeptics.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 29, 2026
"Even today, the story of my father and my mother, while giving me much pain, astonishes me still," Blouin said.
From BBC ● Jan. 6, 2025
The architectural wonder of writer-director Brady Corbet’s 215-minute postwar immigrant epic “The Brutalist” astonishes onscreen.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 26, 2024
What astonishes here is the ease with which he emotionally opens himself up to Juliet, only to realize too late that the options available to this couple are running out.
From New York Times ● Jun. 16, 2023
Knowing that they'll grow older as time passes, they'll become old the way Gramps was, with gray hair and a tremble in his step, so much love still in their hearts—this astonishes me.
From "We Are Okay" by Nina LaCour
The coaches were astonished at how quickly he picked up the playbook.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 25, 2026
FIFA’s insistence that the judiciary body that made the decision was independent did nothing to assuage Belgium’s soccer federation, which said it was astonished by the move.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
You can see Salonen, who gave Josefowicz the support to be brazen, mouth to her astonished wows!
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 23, 2026
On Friday, the prime minister said she had been astonished by Trump's initial claim that she "begged" for a photo.
From BBC ● Jun. 20, 2026
I watched with the profoundest satisfaction as five days of grime ran down my legs and out the drainhole, and noticed with astonished gratitude that my body had taken on a noticeably svelter profile.
From "A Walk in the Woods" by Bill Bryson
One more knockdown, one astonishing comeback and a second-round knockout later, the blockbuster bout was revived.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
In return, he left us a sublime body of work, one that languished in astonishing critical neglect until the mid-19th and early-20th centuries, the result of a dwindling taste for monastic and devotional art.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
It has also given the world a taste of what hacking might look like in the age of powerful AI tools that can find never-before-seen software bugs and exploit them at astonishing speeds.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
Since then, they have spread into an astonishing range of habitats and lifestyles.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 19, 2026
How amazing, astonishing it is that we have this technology, this link—all the hundreds of miles between us, field and forest and river and sea, all the guards and guns, bypassed in an eye blink.
From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein
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.
