stupendous
Americanadjective
-
causing amazement; astounding; marvelous.
stupendous news.
- Synonyms:
- extraordinary
-
amazingly large or great; immense.
a stupendous mass of information.
- Synonyms:
- prodigious, gigantic, vast, colossal
adjective
Other Word Forms
- stupendously adverb
- stupendousness noun
Etymology
Origin of stupendous
1965–70; < Latin stupendus, gerund of stupēre to be stunned; -ous
Explanation
Stupendous means amazing or awesome. You just won a million dollars and are donating it to charity? That’s stupendous! While you might think of stupid as a mean word for someone who isn’t smart, it can also mean senseless or stunned. If something stuns you so much that you are amazed, it is stupendous. Think of a stupendous performance or stupendous scenery. When something is big enough to astound, also use this word. The tower rose to a stupendous height. It would take a stupendous effort to improve your D in history to an A!
Vocabulary lists containing stupendous
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List 6
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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 S&P 500 index, even with its recent wobbles, has returned a stupendous 273% over the past decade, or more than 14% a year.
From Barron's • Apr. 3, 2026
“Howard Stern is getting paid a stupendous, phenomenal, astronomical amount of money,” a securities analyst told the Los Angeles Times in 2007.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 31, 2024
His stupendous vistas are overwhelming in that format.
From Seattle Times • May 20, 2024
Her ripe timbre signaled that she probably would be better suited to the Act IV potion aria, and more than that, she was stupendous.
From New York Times • Mar. 11, 2024
“Much better,” Mr. Mwila said as if Ellis had done something stupendous.
From "P.S. Be Eleven" by Rita Williams-Garcia
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.
