stupefaction
Americannoun
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astonishment
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the act of stupefying or the state of being stupefied
Etymology
Origin of stupefaction
1535–45; < New Latin stupefactiōn- (stem of stupefactiō ) senseless state, equivalent to stupefact ( us ), past participle of stupefacere to stupefy + -iōn- -ion
Vocabulary lists containing stupefaction
The Turn of the Screw
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Pollyanna
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Selection Vocabulary 4, Unit 3
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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.
“The Whisper Man” is a particularly egregious example of this stupefaction.
From Salon ● Sep. 2, 2026
Rogan, wearing his persona as a babe-in-the-woods naif, listened to this nonsense in slack-jawed stupefaction.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 12, 2024
Writing for the London Review of Books, novelist Martin Amis lamented her “somewhat top-heavy interest in madness and stupefaction — the vanished knack of ‘making things matter.’
From Washington Post ● Dec. 23, 2021
Memes from the show have exploded on all platforms, repurposing the stars’ flamboyant styles, ironically adoring its layers upon layers of absurd taste, and sharing the stupefaction of falling into a seven-episode wormhole.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 3, 2020
Two months later, however, when Colonel Aureliano Buendía returned to Macondo, his upset was changed to stupefaction.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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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.
