Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Definition: Astonish |
AstonishVerb1. Affect with wonder; "Your ability to speak six languages amazes me!". Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "astonish" was first used: 13th century. (references) |
Note: Astonish \As*ton"ish\, transitive verb. [imperative past participle Astonished; present participle verb or noun Astonishing.]. (references) |
Synonyms: AstonishSynonyms: amaze (v), astound (v). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Inexpectation | Surprise, startle, take aback, electrify, stun, stagger, take away one's breath, throw off one's guard; astonish, dumbfound; (strike with wonder). |
Wonder | Surprise, astonish, amaze, astound; dumfound, dumfounder; startle, dazzle; daze; strike, strike with wonder, strike with awe; electrify; stun, stupefy, petrify, confound, bewilder, flabbergast, stagger, throw on one's beam ends, fascinate, turn the head, take away one's breath, strike dumb; make one's hair stand on end, make one's tongue cleave to the roof of one's mouth; make one stare. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Astonish |
| English words defined with "astonish": Astone, Astony ♦ Dizz ♦ Gloppen ♦ Thunderstrike, To strike dumb. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "astonish": Browns. (references) |
| Domain | Usage | |
Clever | Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest. (references; author: Mark Twain) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books |
|
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Les Miserables | Hugo, Victor | And then you must see her ears, and then you must see her tail, and that will astonish you. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Astonish" is generally used as a lexical verb (infinitive) -- approximately 74.07% of the time. "Astonish" is used about 27 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 74.07% | 20 | 78,262 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 18.52% | 5 | 157,705 |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 7.41% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 27 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "astonish": astonish smb. ♦ dumfounder astonish. Additional references. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
astonish | 17 |
tale to astonish | 7 |
astonish comic | 4 |
astonish cleaner | 3 |
8 astonish cleaning household piece uk | 2 |
astonish vibrator | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "astonish"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | mahnis (bemuse, flabbergast), habis (amuse, astound, bemuse, confound, daze, dazzle, knock, wow, zap), çudit (amaze, daze, knock, marvel, surprise), çudis (amaze, daze, knock, marvel, surprise). (various references) | |
Arabic | ذهل (amaze, astound, bemuse, bewilder, bowl over, confound, distract, flabbergast, flummox, maze, shake, shock, stagger, stun, stupefy, surprise, take a fancy to, taken aback, wonder), شده (amaze, befog, bemuse, dumbfound, flabbergast, maze, stupefy, wither), دهش (amaze, stagger, startle, stun, surprise). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | учудвам (astound, startle, surprise), удивявам, почудвам (amaze). (various references) | |
Chinese | 駭 (startle), 吃惊 (Astonished), 使吃驚 (surprise). (various references) | |
Czech | uvést k údiv, udivit (amaze, astound, surprise). (various references) | |
Farsi | متحیرکردن (Admire, Dumbfound, Dumfound), گیج کردن (Befuddle, Bemuse, Bewilder, Confound, Confuse, Daze, Distract, Fox, Fuzz, Knockdown, Muddle, Perplex, Petrify, Stump, Stun, Stupefy). (various references) | |
Finnish | kummatuttaa (fill with wonder, surprise), ihmetyttää (fill with wonder), ihmetys (fill with wonder), hämmästyttää (amaze, surprise). (various references) | |
French | ahurir (astound), étonnons, étonnez, étonner, étonnent, époustoufler, ébahir. (various references) | |
German | überraschen (catch unawares, overtake, overtaken, surprise, take aback, take by surprise, to surprise, to take by surprise). (various references) | |
Greek | εκπλήσσω (amaze, astound, flabbergast, surprise). (various references) | |
Hebrew | ל"תמי" (puzzle), ל"""ים (amaze, appal, appall, astound, bewilder, bowl over, dumbfound, flabbergast, perplex, shock, stagger, stun, stupefy). (various references) | |
Hungarian | meghökkent (abashed, amaze, astound, be taken aback, bowl over, bushed, dumbfounded, dumfounded, flabbergasted, flummox, knock, nonplus, nonplussed, perplex, perplexed, thunderstruck, to abash, to amaze, to appal, to appall, to bowl over, to dumbfound, to flabbergast, to flummox, to nonplus, to perplex, to sensationalize), megdöbbent (aghast, appall, astound, dismay, dumbfound, dumbfounded, flabbergast, flummox, stupefied, take aback, threw, thrown, thunderstruck, to appal, to appall, to dismay, to dumbfound, to dumfound, to flabbergast, to flummox, to flurry, to petrify, to stupefy, to throw), ámulatba ejt (astound, to amaze, to carry sy off his feet, to sweep sy off his feet). (various references) | |
Indonesian | mengagumkan (amaze, amazing, astonishing, baffling), mempercengangkan (amaze, baffle, confound, perplex). (various references) | |
Italian | stupire (amaze, astound, be amazed, be astonished, bemuse, dumbfound), sorprendere (amaze, astound, be surprised, catch, overtake, surprise). (various references) | |
Korean | 경천동지하십시". (various references) | |
Manx | thanvaanaghey. (various references) | |
Norwegian | forbause. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | astonishay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | aturdir (amaze, astound, bewilder, confuse, daze, deafen, din, obfuscate, stun), assombrar (amaze, astound, bemuse, daze, haunt, petrify, stupefy, surprise), surpreender (amaze, astound, catch, come upon, daze, get hold of, overtake, startle, surprise, surprising, take by surprise), espantar (astound, daze, flabbergast, run wild, scare, surprise, whisk), embaraçar (abash, astound, blur, clog, cumber, derange, detain, dim, disconcert, embarrass, embroil, encumber, entangle, puzzle, quiz, straiten, trammel), confundir (addle, astound, baffle, befog, befuddle, bewilder, confound, confuse, confusing, confute, daze, dazzle, disarray, disconcert, distract, dizzy, dumbfound, embarrass, embrangle, embroil, flabbergast, floor, flummox, flurry, fluster, fog, gravel, interfuse, intermingle, jumble, maze, mistake, mix up, moider, muddle, muddy, mull, nonplus, obfuscate, obscure, overwhelm, perplex, put out, puzzle, rattle, ravel, stagger). (various references) | |
Romanian | ului (amaze, astound, bewilder, confuse, daze, dazzle, dumbfound, flabbergast, flurry, stun), uimi (amaze, bedazzle, dazzle, flabbergast, flummox, stagger, stupefy, surprise), surprinde (catch, overhear, overtake, startle, surprise), minuna (wonder), buimãci (amaze, astound, bewilder, distract, dumbfound, flabbergast, flummox, horrify, stun, stupefy, surprise). (various references) | |
Russian | удивлять (astonishes), изумлять (amaze, astound, bewilder, daze, flabbergast, stupefy). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | zgranuti (amaze), zaprepastiti (appal, appall, dismay, horrify, shock, stagger), zadiviti (amaze), zabezeknuti, začuditi (amaze). (various references) | |
Spanish | sorprender (astound, catch, catch out, overtake, surprise), asombrar (amaze, appal, appall, astound, flabbergast, flummox, knock back, stagger, surprise). (various references) | |
Swedish | förvåna (amaze, be surprised, confound). (various references) | |
Thai | ทำให้ประหลา"ใจ (jolt). (various references) | |
Turkish | afallatmak (amaze, astound, confuse, daze, flabbergast, floor, flummox, stump, stun, stupefy), hayrete düşürmek (amaze, give smb. a tumble, nonplus), hayret ettirmek (amaze, astound, bewilder, dumbfound, dumfound, flabbergast, gravel, mystify, surprise, wow), şaşırtmak (addle, amaze, astound, baffle, bamboozle, bedevil, befog, befuddle, bemuse, bewilder, bowl over, confound, confuse, daze, discompose, disconcert, discountenance, dislocate, disorient, disorientate, distract, embarrass, embrangle, flabbergast, floor, flummox, fuddle, give smb. a tumble, gravel, intrigue, jolt, knock back, mislead, moither, mystify, nonplus, obfuscate, perplex, put smb. out of countenance, puzzle, rattle, shock, startle, stick, stun, stupefy, surprise, take aback, wow). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | уражати (affect, afflict, astound, attack, nettle, petrify, strike), дивувати (amaze, astound, bewilder, buffalo, daze, enamor, enamour, flabbergast, stupefy, surprise). (various references) | |
Welsh | synnu (amaze, astound, be amazed, be surprised, marvel, surprise). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | defigunt, defixae, defixi, defixisti, defixit, defixos, ex-. (various references) |
| Old French | 900-1400 | estoner. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "astonish": astonished, astonishes, astonishing, astonishingly, astonishment, astonishments. (additional references) | |
| |
"Astonish" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: asstones, astonishm, astounish, atonish, attonish, Ausonius. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "astonish" (pronounced ustÄ"nish) |
| 4 | -Ä" n i sh | admonish. |
| 3 | -n i sh | banish, corniche, diminish, finish, garnish, minish, punish, refinish, replenish, vanish, varnish. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-h-i-n-o-s-s-t" | |
-1 letter: shantis, stonish. | |
-2 letters: hoists, hostas, saints, santos, satins, shanti, shoats, snaths, stains, tonish. | |
-3 letters: antis, hants, hints, hists, hoist, hosta, hosts, iotas, oasis, oasts, oaths, ohias, ossia, ostia, sains, saint, saith, santo, sasin, satin, satis, shins, shist, shoat, shots, sinhs, snash, snath, snits, snots, soths, stain, stash, stoai, stoas, tains, thins. | |
-4 letters: ains, aits. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-h-i-n-o-s-s-t" | |
+1 letter: chitosans. | |
+2 letters: astonished, astonishes, hailstones, historians, sainthoods, senhoritas, stanchions. | |
+3 letters: astonishing, exhaustions, hesitations, housetrains, macintoshes, monarchists, saxophonist, senatorship, soothsaying, standoffish, stephanotis, throatiness. | |
+4 letters: abolishments, anorthosites, anthologists, antifashions, antistrophes, astonishment, autohypnosis, chrismations, harmonicists, inchoateness, mackintoshes, misanthropes, nonhospitals, pathogenesis, prognathisms, saxophonists, senatorships, snapshotting, soothsayings, sycophantish, sycophantism, synarthrosis, taphonomists. | |
+5 letters: admonishments, airworthiness, asphyxiations, astonishingly, astonishments, atherogenesis, attorneyships, crosshatching, custodianship, cytochalasins, hospitalising, housepainters, misanthropies, prehistorians, relationships, rhinoplasties, sansculottish, seaworthiness, sharpshooting, sportsmanship, standoffishly, stenographies, stephanotises, strophanthins, sycophantisms, throatinesses, trapshootings, vibraphonists. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Quotations: Fiction 7. Usage Frequency 8. Expressions | 9. Expressions: Internet 10. Translations: Modern 11. Translations: Ancient 12. Derivations | 13. Rhymes 14. Anagrams 15. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.