sudden
Syllables: sud·den/ˈsʌd.ən/
sudden adjective: occurring quickly with little or no warning or expectation; instantly.
Adjective
sudden (comparative suddener, superlative suddenest)
- Occurring quickly with little or no warning or expectation; instantly.
- The sudden drop in temperature left everyone cold and confused.
- From lightninges and tempeſtes, from plage, peſtilence, and famine, from battayle and murther, and from ſodayn death. / Good lord deliver us.1552, The Boke of Common Prayer [etc.], The Letanie
- Synonyms:
- abrupt
- Hastily prepared or employed; quick; rapid.
- Never was such a sudden scholar made.c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Henry V, act 1, scene 1
- Thus these pious flourishes and colours, examined thoroughly, are like the apples of Asphaltis, appearing goodly to the sudden eye; but look well upon them, or at least but touch them, and they turn into cinders.1649, John Milton, Eikonoklastes
- Hasty; violent; rash; precipitate.
- I have no joy of this contract to-night: / It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden;c. 1591–1595, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, act 2, scene 2
- Synonyms:
- hotheaded
Adverb
sudden (comparative more sudden, superlative most sudden)
- Suddenly.
- Herbs of every leaf that sudden flowered.1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, 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...
Noun
sudden (plural suddens)
- An unexpected occurrence; a surprise.
sudden meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali
sudden in Hindi
- sudden, abrupt, unanticipated
- आकस्मिक ākasmik
- sudden, spontaneous
- सहज sahaj
sudden in Tamil
- திடீர்
sudden in Urdu
- اچانک, ایک دم
sudden in Bengali
- আকস্মিক, অপ্রত্যাশিত, অনপেখিত, ত্বরিত, বেমক্কা, অদ্ভুত
More languagesFewer languages
- sudden in Telugu
- హఠాత్తుగా haṭhāttugā, అకస్మాత్తుగా akasmāttugā
- sudden in Malayalam
- പെട്ടെന്ന് peṭṭennŭ
- sudden in Kannada
- ಹಠಾತ್, ಅಚಾನಕ್, ಆಕಸ್ಮಿಕ, ಕೂಡಲೇ
- sudden in Punjabi
- لیہہ līh
- sudden in Gujarati
- ઝાપટું jhāpṭũ
- sudden in Sanskrit
- अकाण्ड akāṇḍa, अम्नस् amnás
- sudden in Pashto
- ناڅاپی nāśāpī
- sudden in Tagalog
- biglaan, kagyat, kaagad, bigla
- sudden in Arabic
- مُبَاغِت mubāḡit, مُفَاجِئ mufājiʔ
- sudden in Thai
- กะทันหัน gà-tan-hǎn
- sudden in Vietnamese
- thình lình, đột ngột
Examples of sudden in a sentence
- A sudden chemical spill on the highway created a chain‐collision which created a record traffic jam.
- There was a sudden gust of wind, on which spores were borne away.
- The aircraft went into a sudden decline before the pilot regained control.
Synonyms of sudden
- abrupt
- hotheaded
- precipitous
- subitaneous
- impetuous
- impulsive
- precipitant
- precipitate
- spontaneous
- suddent
Antonyms
Forms of sudden
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | suddener |
| superlative | suddenest |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more sudden |
| superlative | most sudden |
| Noun | |
| plural | suddens |
Origin of sudden
From Middle English sodeyn, sodain, from Anglo-Norman sodein, from Old French sodain, subdain (“immediate, sudden”), from Vulgar Latin *subitānus (“sudden”), from Latin subitāneus (“sudden”), from subitus (“sudden", literally, "that which has come stealthily”), originally the past participle of subīre (“to come or go stealthily”), from sub (“under”) + īre (“go”). Doublet of subitaneous. Displaced native Old English fǣrlīċ.
Words formed from sudden
- all of the sudden
- of a sudden
- on a sudden
- upon a sudden
- all of a sudden
- all on a sudden
- all the sudden
- a quick drop and a sudden stop
- a short drop and a sudden stop
- sudden arrhythmic death syndrome
- sudden death
- sudden death syndrome
- sudden fiction
- sudden infant death syndrome
- suddenism
- suddenly
- suddenness
- sudden oak death
- sudden sniffing death syndrome
- sudden stratospheric warming
- suddenty
- sudden unexpected death syndrome
- sudden unexplained death syndrome
- sudden unexplained nocturnal death syndrome
- sudden victory
- suddenwoven
- supersudden
- Yunnan sudden death syndrome
Phrases with sudden
Words that rhyme with sudden
Questions about sudden
- What does sudden mean?
- Sudden means occurring quickly with little or no warning or expectation; instantly.
- What is sudden in Hindi?
- Sudden in Hindi is आकस्मिक (ākasmik), सहज (sahaj). See Sudden meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is sudden?
- Sudden can be an adjective, an adverb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce sudden?
- Sudden is pronounced /ˈsʌd.ən/.
Words near sudden in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: sudden (page history and authors); आकस्मिक (Hindi) (page history and authors); sudden (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sudden (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sudden (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sudden (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); لیہہ (Punjabi) (page history and authors); ઝાપટું (Gujarati) (page history and authors); अकाण्ड (Sanskrit) (page history and authors); ناڅاپی (Pashto) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-sudden.ogg.
Cite this entry: “sudden.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sudden. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.