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
Derived 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.
Better equipped to mother Boy No. 2 or stricken with learned helplessness from being coddled by an expert on my phone day in and day out?
From Slate • May 10, 2026
The version detected aboard the stricken Hondius ship was a rare strain known as the Andes virus, which can be transmitted between humans.
From Barron's • May 7, 2026
"These people do a fantastic job, volunteers in the community and putting their life at risk to go and save another vessel that was stricken and in danger."
From BBC • May 4, 2026
Representatives of nearly 40 organizations in cities across the country have reached out to him for advice on how similar programs might work in their stricken neighborhoods.
From Los Angeles Times • Mar. 16, 2026
“That’s enough, Jimmie,” Mom admonished him while Dad stood in stricken silence.
From "October Sky" by Homer Hickam
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.
