Word.ws English Dictionary

on a sudden

on a sudden prepositional phrase: synonym of all of a sudden or suddenly.

Prepositional phrase

  1. (obsolete) Synonym of all of a sudden or suddenly.
    • How are thou loſt, how on a ſudden loſt,1667, John Milton, “Book CCXLVII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC...
    • On a sudden, it seemed that a thousand bugles broke the blue air, and they were summoned to a dejeuner in four crimson tents, worthy of Sardanapalus.1831, [Benjamin Disraeli], chapter XI, in The Young Duke. […], volume II (book III), London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 144
    Synonyms:
    all of a sudden or suddenly

Synonyms of on a sudden

  • all of a sudden or suddenly

Questions about on a sudden

What does on a sudden mean?
On a sudden means synonym of all of a sudden or suddenly.
What part of speech is on a sudden?
On a sudden is a prepositional phrase.

Words near on a sudden in the dictionary

  1. on a silver platter
  2. on a sixpence
  3. on a stick
  4. on a stretch
  5. on a string
  6. on a sudden
  7. on a tear
  8. on a tight leash
  9. on a time
  10. on a whim
  11. on a wing and a prayer

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: on a sudden (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “on a sudden.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/on_a_sudden. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.