Surprising

Definition: Surprising

Surprising

Adjective

1. Causing surprise or wonder or amazement; "the report shows a surprising lack of hard factual data"; "leaped up with surprising agility"; "she earned a surprising amount of money".

Date "surprising" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1588. (references)

Synonym: Surprising

Synonym: marvelous. (additional references)

Antonym: unsurprising (adj). (additional references)

Context	Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).
Inexpectation	Unexpected, unanticipated, unpredicted, unlooked for, unforeseen, unhoped for; dropped from the clouds; beyond expectation, contrary to expectation, against expectation, against all expectation; out of one's reckoning; unheard of; (exceptional); startling, surprising; sudden; (instantaneous).
Wonder	Wonderful, wondrous; surprising; Verb: unexpected; unheard of; mysterious; (inexplicable); miraculous.
Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

Domain	Usage
Screenplays	A surprising number of human beings are without purpose, though it is probable that they are performing some function unknown to themselves. (Picnic at Hanging Rock; writing credit: Cliff Green) Now, clearly seeing into the future would fall into neatly into that category; its not so surprising then that an organism deprived of its earthly vision (O Brother, Where Art Thou?; writing credit: Ethan Coen) I don't know why that's surprising, you're a flake! (Will & Grace; writing credit: Evan Weinstein) To what do I owe the extreme pleasure of this surprising visit? (A Clockwork Orange; writing credit: Stanley Kubrick) Nothing in this world is more surprising than the attack without mercy! (Little Big Man; writing credit: Thomas Berger; Calder Willingham)
Movie/TV Titles	It Is Not Surprising (1972) Surprising Suzie (1953) A Surprising Powder (1909)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Domain	Title
Books	Fast Fixes and Simple Solutions: Surprising Uses for Ordinary Household Items (reference) (more book examples)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Thumbnail	Description & Credit	Thumbnail	Description & Credit
	The Hubble telescope has uncovered surprising evidence that powerful magnetic fields may exist ... Credit: NASA.		The Snapping turtle, Chelydra serpentina, is easily confused with the alligator snapping turtle. Considered ill-tempered, they feed on invertebrates, fish, reptiles, carrion, etc. and a surprising amount of vegetation. These turtles trapped in the fresh and brackish waters of bay tributaries and sold to restaurants for use in soups and stews. Credit: America's Coastlines.
	Innuits of St. Lawrence Island, Alaska Surprising and harpooning a herd of walrus Drawing by H. W. Elliott. Credit: National Marine Fisheries Historical Image Collection.		[Philip Leder's lecture on a close and surprising look at the mammalian genome]. Credit: National Library of Medicine.
	United States missiles attacking Marcus Island, surprising Japan. Credit: Library of Congress.
Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

Play	Caption	Play	Caption
	Boo; ghost; scare; scary; sneak up; sneaked up; surprise; surprising; sneaking up; ghoul; phantom; poltergeist; Halloween.		Surprise; startle; startling; surprising.
	Boo; ghost; scare; scary; sneak up; sneaked up; surprise; surprising; sneaking up; ghoul; phantom; poltergeist; Halloween.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Author	Quotation
Sir William Osler	When schemes are laid in advance, it is surprising how often the circumstances will fit in with them.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Author	Date	Quotation
Brown v. Board of Education	1954	As a consequence, it is not surprising that there should be so little in the history of the Fourteenth Amendment relating to its intended effect on public education. (reference)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Title	Author	Quote
A Christmas Carol	Dickens, Charles	But it had undergone a surprising transformation.
Les Miserables	Hugo, Victor	One of the most surprising is the eager spoliation of the dead after a victory.
Gulliver's Travels	Swift, Jonathan	Imagination can figure nothing so grand, so surprising, and so astonishing.
Walden	Thoreau, Henry David	It is surprising how many great men and women a small house will contain.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Subject	Topic	Quote
Health		However, a surprising 77 specimens were found with fibroids upon very close examination. (references)
		Amantadine has been used with surprising success to treat hyperactivity and attention difficulties in children with low IQs, for whom stimulants are generally less effective. (references)
		Although a tick bite is an important clue for diagnosis, many patients cannot recall having been bitten recently by a tick. This is not surprising because the tick is tiny, and a tick bite is usually painless. (references)
Business		In spite of lower relative income, development of the mobile sector has been surprising. (references)
		In 1998 there was increase by 11.1 percent and, in 1997, rising a surprising 23 percent. (references)
		It is not so surprising, then, that energy policy is a highly contentious issue in Norway. (references)
Economic History	Switzerland	It is, therefore, not surprising that they continue to invest heavily in eBusiness and Internet services. (references)
	Argentina	Therefore, it is not surprising to note that English as a Second Language (ESL) has become an important component of the education services field in Argentina. (references)
	Sweden	The current account returned to surplus in 1994 after nine years of deficit, and was relatively stable to 1999 when it declined from 3.5 percent of GDP in 1999 to 2.4 percent in 2000. The erosion of the current account surplus is not surprising, considering the strength of domestic demand in recent years. (references)
Lexicography	Devil's Dictionary	ACEPHALOUS, adj. In the surprising condition of the Crusader who absently pulled at his forelock some hours after a Saracen scimitar had, unconsciously to him, passed through his neck, as related by de Joinville.
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

Speaker	Phrase(s)
James Lipton	I was dealing with craft, and that's the surprising thing, the number of people who have literally broken down on our stage, because when you're talking about the thing that is most important to someone, they're liable to feel something strong.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Speaker	Term	Phrase(s)
Andrew Jackson	1829-1837	That the inhabitants of the United States should feel strong prepossessions for the one party is not surprising.
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

"Surprising" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 99.86% of the time. "Surprising" is used about 3,491 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
Adjective (general or positive)	99.86%	3,486	2,784
Lexical Verb (-ing form)	0.14%	5	157,705
Total	100.00%	3,491	N/A

Expressions using "surprising": be surprising ♦ that is very surprising. Additional references.
Hypenated Usage
	Ending with "surprising": not-surprising.
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.

Language		Translations for "surprising"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.
Albanian		i papritur (abrupt, accidental, precipitate, sudden, unasked, uncontemplated, undreamed of, undreamt of, unexpected, unforeseen, unhoped, unlooked for, unrehearsed), i çuditshëm (bizarre, cranky, curious, dark, eccentric, electric, erratic, extraordinary, fanciful, fantastic, fantastical, frabjous, freak, freakish, funny, grotesque, kinky, odd, oddish, off beat, outlandish, peculiar, pixilated, puzzling, quaint, queer, quizzical, rummy, strange, uncanny, unco, unnatural, unusual, viewy, way out, weird, whimsical). (various references)

Arabic		‏مفاجئ (abrupt, at sea, flash, like a bolt from the blue, precipitate, snappy, sudden, surprised, swift, unexpected, unforeseen, unlooked for, unpredicted), ‏مدهش (agape, amazing, astonishing, astounding, awesome, baffling, dandy, dumbfounding, marvellous, marvelous, out of this world, phenomenal, prodigious, ripping, staggering, startling, striking, stunning, topping, trembling, wonder, wonderful, wondrous). (various references)

Bulgarian		удивителен (amazing, astonishing, astounding, dizzy, exclamatory, extraordinary, fantastic, fantastical, marvellous, marvelous, prodigious, remarkable, striking, stupendous, wonderful), неочакван (accidental, emergent, snap, strange, sudden, surprise, swift, unanticipated, uncontemplated, undreamed of, undreamt of, unexpected, unforeseen, unhoped-for, unlooked for, unrehearsed, unsought, unsuspected), ненадеен (abrupt, sudden, surprise, unhoped-for, unlooked for, untrustworthy), изумителен (amazing, astonishing, overwhelming, prodigious, splashing, startling, stupendous), изненадващ (rude, surprise, unlooked for, unthought of). (various references)

Chinese		惊奇 (Amaze, Amazed, Amazing, Marveled, Marveling, surprise, surprised). (various references)

Czech		překvapující (astonishing, startling, strange, striking), překvapivý. (various references)

Dutch		verrassend (startling). (various references)

Esperanto		surpriza (startling). (various references)

Faeroese		ovfarin (startling), bilsin (startling). (various references)

Finnish		yllätyksellinen (startling), ihmeteltävä (astonishing, wonderful), hämmästyttävä (amazing, astounding). (various references)

French		surprenant. (various references)

Frisian		ferrassend (startling). (various references)

German		überraschend (astonishing, startling, surprise, unexpected). (various references)

Greek		εκπληκτικόσ (astonishing, striking, wondrous). (various references)

Hebrew		מתמי�" (amazing, astonishing, strange), מפתיע (amazing, astonishing, astounding, unexpected), תמו�" (amazing, enigmatic, mystifying, odd, peculiar, strange). (various references)

Hungarian		meglepő (astounding, dumfounding, earful, mind-bending, startler, startling, stunning). (various references)

Indonesian		mengagetkan (shocking, startling). (various references)

Italian		sorprendente (admirable, amazing, astonishing, startling). (various references)

Japanese Kanji		驚くべき (amazing, astonishing, wonderful). (various references)

Japanese Katakana		おどろくべき (amazing, astonishing, wonderful), おもいのほか (unexpected), いがい (corpse, excepting, remains, unexpected, with the exception of). (various references)

Korean		기습. (various references)

Manx		yindyssagh (admirable, marvellous, prodigious, rare, terrific, wonderer, wonderful). (various references)

Pig Latin		urprisingsay

Portuguese		surprendente, surpreendente (amazing, astonishing, startling, strange, striking, wondrous), imprevisto (contretemps, sudden, uncontemplated, undesigned, unexpected, unforeseen, unlooked-for, unpredictable), espantoso (appaling, appalling, astonishing, astounding, colossal, dreadful, fearsome, frightful, phenomenal, terrible, terrific, unbelievable, wonderful, wondrous), assombroso (amazing, astonishing, astounding, stunning, stupendous, wondrous), admirável (admirable, good, marvellous, marvelous, striking, wonderful). (various references)

Romanian		surprinzãtor (astonishing, astonishingly, startling, strange, stupendous, wonderful, wonderfully), uimitor (amazing, astonishing, marvellous, prodigious, startling, striking, stupendous), frapant (conspicuousness, salient, striking). (various references)

Russian		удивительный (amazing, astonishing, astounding, electrical, marvellous, miraculous, wonderful, wondrous), неожиданный (off-guard, sudden, uncontemplated, undreamedof, undreamtof, unexpected, unhoped, unlooked for, unlooked-for, unrehearsed, unsuspected, upbeat). (various references)

Scottish		neònach (amusing, droll, eccentric, odd, unusual), iongantach (strange, wonderful). (various references)

Serbo-Croatian		neočekivan (accidental, unexpected, unlooked for), iznenadan (sudden). (various references)

Spanish		sorprendente (astonishing, astounding), asombroso (amazing, appaling, appalling, astonishing, astounding, breathtaking, staggering, startling, stupendous). (various references)

Swedish		förvånande (amazing, astonishing, astounding, surprisingly). (various references)

Turkish		hayret verici (amazing, astonishing, astounding, bewildering, marvellous, marvelous, stunning, stupendous), şaşırtıcı (amazing, astonishing, astounding, baffling, bewildering, colossal, confused, confusing, dazzling, incredible, intriguing, mind-bending, perplexing, puzzling, rum, spectacular, staggering, startling, striking, twisty). (various references)

Turkmen		geс (strange, weird). (various references)

Ukrainian		несподіваний (abrupt, accidental, extempore, helter-skelter, occasional, unexpected, unhoped, unlooked for, unsuspected), дивовижний (amazing, electrical, extraordinary, heavenly, marvellous, marvelous, outlandish, portentous, prodigious, remarkable, striking, stupendous, wonderful). (various references)

Vietnamese		l� m ngạc nhiên (astonishing), l� m kinh ngạc (amazing, astounding, dazzling). (various references)

Welsh		syn (aghast, amazed, astonishing, blank). (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

Language	Period	Translations
Latin	500 BCE-Modern	mira, mirum. (various references)
Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

Derivations
	Words beginning with "surprising": surprisingly. (additional references)
	Words ending with "surprising": unsurprising. (additional references)
	Words containing "surprising": unsurprisingly. (additional references)
Misspellings
	"Surprising" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: supprising, suprising. (additional references)
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

# of Phoneme Matches	Pronunciation	Word(s) rhyming with "surprising" (pronounced serprī"zing or suprī"zing)
8	s er p r ī" z i ng	unsurprising.
6	-p r ī" z i ng	comprising, uprising.
5	-r ī" z i ng	rising.
4	-ī" z i ng	advising, arising, chastising, decriminalizing, devising, disguising, revising, sensationalizing, sizing.
3	-z i ng	abusing, accusing, advertising, aggrandizing, agonizing, amazing, amortizing, amusing, analyzing, antagonizing, apologizing, appeasing, appetizing, appraising, arousing, authorizing, blazing, boozing, bowsing, browsing, bruising, brutalizing, bulldozing, buzzing, cannibalizing, capitalizing, carousing, categorizing, causing, centralizing, characterizing, choosing, cleansing, closing, colorizing, commercializing, composing, compromising, computerizing, confusing, criminalizing, criticizing, cruising, crystallizing, customizing, decentralizing, decomposing, deemphasizing, defusing, dehumanizing, demilitarizing, democratizing, demonizing, demoralizing, denationalizing, desensitizing, destabilizing, diffusing, digitizing, disclosing, disposing, downsizing, dozing, dramatizing, easing, economizing, editorializing, emphasizing, enclosing, energizing, enterprising, equalizing, espousing, excusing, exercising, exposing, fantasizing, federalizing, fertilizing, finalizing, foreclosing, formalizing, franchising, fraternizing, freezing, fusing, galvanizing, gazing, generalizing, glamorizing, glazing, grazing, harmonizing, hazing, hosing, housing, humanizing, hydrolyzing, idolizing, immobilizing, immortalizing, immunizing, imposing, improvising, industrializing, infusing, institutionalizing, ionizing, ironizing, itemizing, jeopardizing, legalizing, legitimizing, liberalizing, losing, marginalizing, materializing, maximizing, memorizing, merchandising, mesmerizing, minimizing, misusing, mobilizing, modernizing, monopolizing, moralizing, musing, nationalizing, neutralizing, normalizing, nosing, oozing, opposing, organizing, overgrazing, overusing, oxidizing, paralyzing, paraphrasing, patronizing, pausing, penalizing, personalizing, perusing, phasing, phrasing, pleasing, polarizing, politicizing, popularizing, posing, praising, predisposing, prioritizing, privatizing, proposing, proselytizing, publicizing, quizzing, raising, rationalizing, razing, realizing, reauthorizing, recapitalizing, recognizing, recusing, refusing, reimposing, reorganizing, reusing, revitalizing, revolutionizing, romanticizing, Rosing, sanitizing, satirizing, schmoozing, scrutinizing, securitizing, seizing, sneezing, snoozing, socializing, specializing, squeezing, stabilizing, standardizing, sterilizing, stigmatizing, strategizing, subsidizing, summarizing, supervising, supposing, symbolizing, sympathizing, synthesizing, tantalizing, teasing, televising, temporizing, terrorizing, theorizing, tranquilizing, trivializing, unappetizing, uncompromising, unionizing, using, utilizing, vandalizing, verbalizing, victimizing, visualizing, warehousing, wheezing, whizzing, womanizing.
7	-u p r ī" z i ng	uprising.
6	-p r ī" z i ng	comprising, unsurprising.
5	-r ī" z i ng	rising.
4	-ī" z i ng	advising, arising, chastising, decriminalizing, devising, disguising, revising, sensationalizing, sizing.
3	-z i ng	abusing, accusing, advertising, aggrandizing, agonizing, amazing, amortizing, amusing, analyzing, antagonizing, apologizing, appeasing, appetizing, appraising, arousing, authorizing, blazing, boozing, bowsing, browsing, bruising, brutalizing, bulldozing, buzzing, cannibalizing, capitalizing, carousing, categorizing, causing, centralizing, characterizing, choosing, cleansing, closing, colorizing, commercializing, composing, compromising, computerizing, confusing, criminalizing, criticizing, cruising, crystallizing, customizing, decentralizing, decomposing, deemphasizing, defusing, dehumanizing, demilitarizing, democratizing, demonizing, demoralizing, denationalizing, desensitizing, destabilizing, diffusing, digitizing, disclosing, disposing, downsizing, dozing, dramatizing, easing, economizing, editorializing, emphasizing, enclosing, energizing, enterprising, equalizing, espousing, excusing, exercising, exposing, fantasizing, federalizing, fertilizing, finalizing, foreclosing, formalizing, franchising, fraternizing, freezing, fusing, galvanizing, gazing, generalizing, glamorizing, glazing, grazing, harmonizing, hazing, hosing, housing, humanizing, hydrolyzing, idolizing, immobilizing, immortalizing, immunizing, imposing, improvising, industrializing, infusing, institutionalizing, ionizing, ironizing, itemizing, jeopardizing, legalizing, legitimizing, liberalizing, losing, marginalizing, materializing, maximizing, memorizing, merchandising, mesmerizing, minimizing, misusing, mobilizing, modernizing, monopolizing, moralizing, musing, nationalizing, neutralizing, normalizing, nosing, oozing, opposing, organizing, overgrazing, overusing, oxidizing, paralyzing, paraphrasing, patronizing, pausing, penalizing, personalizing, perusing, phasing, phrasing, pleasing, polarizing, politicizing, popularizing, posing, praising, predisposing, prioritizing, privatizing, proposing, proselytizing, publicizing, quizzing, raising, rationalizing, razing, realizing, reauthorizing, recapitalizing, recognizing, recusing, refusing, reimposing, reorganizing, reusing, revitalizing, revolutionizing, romanticizing, Rosing, sanitizing, satirizing, schmoozing, scrutinizing, securitizing, seizing, sneezing, snoozing, socializing, specializing, squeezing, stabilizing, standardizing, sterilizing, stigmatizing, strategizing, subsidizing, summarizing, supervising, supposing, symbolizing, sympathizing, synthesizing, tantalizing, teasing, televising, temporizing, terrorizing, theorizing, tranquilizing, trivializing, unappetizing, uncompromising, unionizing, using, utilizing, vandalizing, verbalizing, victimizing, visualizing, warehousing, wheezing, whizzing, womanizing.
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams
	Words within the letters "g-i-i-n-p-r-r-s-s-u"
	-1 letter: suspiring, uprisings.
	-2 letters: prissing, spurring, uprising.
	-3 letters: issuing, pissing, prising, purring, pursing, risings, spiring, springs.
	-4 letters: pignus, purins, riping, rising, siping, siring, sirups, sprigs, spring, sprugs, sprung, spuing, spurns, unrigs, unrips.
	-5 letters: girns, grins, grips, iring, nisus, piing, pings, pirns, prigs, priss, pungs, purin, puris, purrs, rings, risus, ruing, ruins, rungs, signs, sings, sinus, sirup.
	Words containing the letters "g-i-i-n-p-r-r-s-s-u"
	+2 letters: pressurising, pressurizing, surprisingly, unsurprising.
	+3 letters: superscribing.
	+4 letters: depressurizing, repressurizing, unsurprisingly.
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.

Expression	Frequency per Day
surprising	7
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

Surprising

Definition: Surprising

Surprising

Adjective

Synonym: Surprising

Synonyms within Context: Surprising

Inexpectation

Wonder

Crosswords: Surprising

Modern Usage: Surprising

Screenplays

Movie/TV Titles

Commercial Usage: Surprising

Books

Photo Album: Surprising

Sounds Captioned with "Surprising".

Familiar Quotations: Surprising

Sir William Osler

Historic Usage: Surprising

Brown v. Board of Education

Use in Literature: Surprising

A Christmas Carol

Dickens, Charles

Les Miserables

Hugo, Victor

Gulliver's Travels

Swift, Jonathan

Walden

Thoreau, Henry David

Non-Fiction Usage: Surprising

Health

Business

Economic History

Switzerland

Argentina

Sweden

Lexicography

Devil's Dictionary

Spoken Usage: Surprising

James Lipton

Speeches: Surprising

Andrew Jackson

Usage Frequency: Surprising

Expression: Surprising

Frequency of Internet Keywords: Surprising

surprising

Modern Translation: Surprising

Albanian

Arabic

Bulgarian

Chinese

Czech

Dutch

Esperanto

Faeroese

Finnish

French

Frisian

German

Greek

Hebrew

Hungarian

Indonesian

Italian

Japanese Kanji

Japanese Katakana

Korean

Manx

Pig Latin

Portuguese

Romanian

Russian

Scottish

Serbo-Croatian

Spanish

Swedish

Turkish

Turkmen

Ukrainian

Vietnamese