stunning
Syllables: stun·ning
stunning adjective: having an effect that stuns. Also the present participle and gerund of stun.
Adjective
stunning (comparative more stunning, superlative most stunning)
- Having an effect that stuns.
- The stunning jolt from the taser gun made the criminal stop fleeing.
- At length a univerſal hubbub wild,
Of ſtunning ſounds and voices all confus'd,
Borne through the hollow dark, aſſaults his ear1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
- Exceptionally beautiful or attractive.
- That woman is stunning!
- What if the very things you like in me now—you'd hate sometime. What if the things I think are strong and stunning in you now, I'd think were pig-headed and kickable after a while?1923, Rachel Crothers, “Act III”, in Mary the Third[:] A Comedy in Prologue and Three Acts
- Amazing; wonderfully good.
- The film was stunning.
- So it was against the run of play that their London rivals took the lead two minutes before the interval through Drogba. He rolled William Gallas inside the area before flashing a stunning finish high past keeper Carlo Cudicini.2012 April 15, Phil McNulty, “Tottenham 1-5 Chelsea”, in BBC
Noun
stunning (plural stunnings)
- The act by which a person or animal is physically stunned.
- He wished he had tens of thousands more troops under Andez's control so he could round up every one of these demonstrators. But it was futile to continue cracking down. The stunnings, beatings and arrests had only inflamed them further.2009, Kevin J. Anderson, The Ashes of Worlds
Also used as
stunning is also the present participle and gerund of stun.
stunning meaning in Bengali, Kannada, Gujarati and Sanskrit
stunning in Bengali
- অত্যাশ্চর্য
stunning in Kannada
- ಬೆರಗುಗೊಳಿಸುವಂಥದ್ದು, ಬೆರಗುಗೊಳಿಸುವಂತಿದೆ, ಬೆರಗುಗೊಳಿಸುತ್ತದೆ
stunning in Gujarati
- અદભૂત
stunning in Sanskrit
- exceptionally beautiful or attractive
- वपुष vapuṣa
Examples of stunning in a sentence
- The first trek to the summit of Mount Everest was a stunning exploit.
- They put together a stunning audiovisual presentation, with movies and music as well as plenty of information.
- After releasing her stunning exposé, she quickly became the woman of the hour in city politics.
Forms of stunning
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more stunning |
| superlative | most stunning |
| Noun | |
| plural | stunnings |
Origin of stunning
From Middle English stunnyng, stunnynge, stounyng, equivalent to stun + -ing.
From Middle English stunnyng, stonyng (also stoniynge, stonyynge), equivalent to stun + -ing.
Words formed from stunning
Words that rhyme with stunning
Questions about stunning
- What does stunning mean?
- Stunning means having an effect that stuns.
- What is stunning in Bengali?
- Stunning in Bengali is অত্যাশ্চর্য. See Stunning meaning in Bengali.
- What part of speech is stunning?
- Stunning can be an adjective or a noun.
Words near stunning in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: stunning (page history and authors); stunning (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); stunning (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); stunning (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-stunning.wav.
Cite this entry: “stunning.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/stunning. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.