stricken
Americanverb
adjective
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hit or wounded by a weapon, missile, or the like.
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beset or afflicted, as with disease, trouble, or sorrow.
stricken areas; a stricken family.
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deeply affected, as with grief, fear, or other emotions.
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characterized by or showing the effects of affliction, trouble, misfortune, a mental blow, etc..
stricken features.
adjective
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laid low, as by disease or sickness
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deeply affected, as by grief, love, etc
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archaic wounded or injured
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of stricken
First recorded in 1530–40
Explanation
Stricken means "overwhelmed by emotion." When you saw the pretty new girl at school smiling at you, you were so stricken you walked right into a wall. Stricken means "affected," whether it's in a good way — being so stricken by spring fever that you can't stop singing and goofing around — or bad, like being stricken by a real fever and a sore throat and the chills and. . . you get the idea. You can also be stricken by fear, like a family so stricken by fear of bedbugs that they cancelled their hotel reservation and just slept in their car.
Vocabulary lists containing stricken
The Outsiders
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List 6
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Bud, Not Buddy
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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.
One person has died and 102 have been rescued from a stricken Indonesian passenger ferry in the Java Sea, an official said.
From BBC ● Sep. 13, 2026
Even if they want to ditch the industrial food products, healthier alternatives cost more -- and in poverty stricken areas of East Tennessee, that's a non-starter.
From Barron's ● Sep. 3, 2026
The game was delayed approximately 20 minutes early in the second period quarter after a Chaminade player became stricken by the hot and humid conditions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 29, 2026
Then, William Hyde, a middle-aged Black man born and bred in Nashville, looked dumbfounded—he too had been stricken by Chud.
From Slate ● Aug. 20, 2026
Pinmei and Yishan looked at each other, stricken.
From "When the Sea Turned to Silver" by Grace Lin
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.
