Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use surprise in a sentence

40 example sentences · noun, verb, interjection

Surprise means something unexpected. Example: “It was a surprise to find out I owed twice as much as I thought.”

Examples of surprise by meaning

nounSomething unexpected.

  • It was a surprise to find out I owed twice as much as I thought.
  • It came as a surprise when he succeed.
  • England were graphically illustrating the huge gulf in class between the sides and it was no surprise when Lampard added the second just before the half hour.2012 September 7, Phil McNulty, “Moldova 0-5 England”, in BBC Sport

nounA mess of feces, left by a pet or small child in an unexpected place or at an unexpected time.

  • After the housecleaners drove off, the cat left a surprise for us on the carpet.

nounThe feeling that something unexpected has happened.

  • Imagine my surprise on learning I owed twice as much as I thought I did.

verbTo cause (someone) to feel unusually alarmed or delighted by something unexpected.

  • It surprises me that I owe twice as much as I thought I did.

verbTo do something to (a person) that they are not expecting, as a surprise.

  • He doesn’t know that I’m in the country – I thought I’d turn up at his house and surprise him.
  • My boss surprised me into admitting I left work early last week.
  • He surprised me with flowers on our anniversary.

verbTo undergo or witness something unexpected.

  • He doesn’t surprise easily.

verbTo take unawares.

  • I surprised a raccoon scavenging through the garbage last night.

interjectionDrawing attention to a surprising action by oneself.

  • "Surprise!" we shouted as we jumped out from the cupboard. "Happy birthday!"

More sentences with surprise

  • I just saw the video where he opens the door and gets the surprise! LOL!From the entry lol
  • Surprise parties succeed with the help of accessory neighbors or colleagues.From the entry accessory
  • He hasn't twigged that we're planning a surprise party for him.From the entry twig
  • If you plant a seed in the spring, you may have a pleasant surprise in the autumn.From the entry seed
  • It was a surprise to see the captain, who had always seemed so serious, laugh so heartily.From the entry serious
  • I put a blindfold over my boyfriend's eyes and told him I had a surprise for him.From the entry blindfold
  • With your handwriting, it's no surprise the Prof can't read your hieroglyphs!From the entry hieroglyph
  • When he walked into his surprise birthday party, he was completely speechless.From the entry speechless
  • It's supposed to be a surprise, so try to keep a lid on it, will you?From the entry keep a lid on
  • It was going to be a surprise party until someone let the cat out of the bag.From the entry let the cat out of the bag
  • To everyone's surprise, after being divorced for ten years the couple eloped to Las Vegas and remarried.From the entry remarry
  • To my surprise, the ticker showed that the deal had already gone through.From the entry ticker
  • They had planned it as a surprise party, but somebody spilled the beans.From the entry spill the beans
  • I was planning it as a surprise, but I think he is on to me.From the entry be on to
  • Despite already being aware, he will be acting out the pretence of a surprise.From the entry act out
  • Despite already being aware, he acted out the pretence of a surprise.From the entry acted out
  • Despite already being aware, he is acting out the pretence of a surprise.From the entry acting out
  • He stood there speechlessly. The surprise had rendered him unable to make an intelligible reply.From the entry speechlessly
  • In these difficult times, unexpectable events can take everyone by surprise.From the entry unexpectable
  • If you go into the forest, you'll come in for a nasty surprise.From the entry come in for
  • A surprise inspection of the night shift found that some workers were dogging it.From the entry dog
  • My brother made the same mistake I did, but he didn't get punished: quelle surprise.From the entry quelle surprise
  • We should attack the enemy's camp now while we still have the element of surprise.From the entry element of surprise
  • I joybaited him with a surprise video and he couldn’t stop laughing.From the entry joybait
  • There were no surprises in this morning's much-trailed budget statement.From the entry trail
  • I really (ahem!) liked the chocolate broccoli surprise.From the entry ahem
  • He never really made a contribution to the match, so it was no surprise when he was subbed at half time.From the entry sub
  • Your sign is Taurus? That's no surprise.From the entry sign

Meaning of surprise

  1. noun Something unexpected.
  2. noun A mess of feces, left by a pet or small child in an unexpected place or at an unexpected time.
  3. noun The feeling that something unexpected has happened.

Full definition of surprise

Questions about surprise in a sentence

How do you use surprise in a sentence?
Surprise is used as a noun, verb and interjection. For example: “It was a surprise to find out I owed twice as much as I thought.”
What is a short sentence with surprise?
“He doesn’t surprise easily.”
What does surprise mean?
Surprise means something unexpected.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: surprise (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use surprise in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/surprise. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.