Word.ws English Dictionary

startles

startles is the plural of startle.

startles is the third-person singular simple present indicative of startle.

Meaning of startle

Noun

startle (plural startles)

  1. A sudden motion or shock caused by an unexpected alarm, surprise, or apprehension of danger.
    • The figure of a man heaving in sight amidst these wide solitudes, always causes a startle and thrill of expectation and doubt, similar to the feeling produced by the announcement of " a strange sail ahead" on shipboard, during a long voyage.1845, George Hooker Colton, James Davenport Whelpley, chapter 1, in The American review

See all 4 meanings of startle

Questions about startles

What is startles the plural of?
Startles is the plural of startle.

Words near startles in the dictionary

  1. startledly
  2. startlement
  3. startlements
  4. startler
  5. startlers
  6. startles
  7. startline
  8. startlines
  9. startling
  10. startlingly
  11. startlingness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: startles (page history and authors); startle (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: “startles.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/startles. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.