astonish

CEFRC1

/əˈstɒnɪʃ/

verb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    verb

    To surprise someone very greatly.

  2. 02

    verb

    Extra detail

    To surprise greatly.

Examples

  • Always do right. This will gratify some people and astonish the rest.

  • Do the right thing. It will gratify some people and astonish the rest.

At a glance

Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
2
Parts of speech
1
Citations
1
Synonyms
3

Deep Dive

More examples

In context

  • Astonish your friends by teaching your dog to do backflips!

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The magician's final trick never failed to blank the audience with its unexpected and dazzling finale.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

verb

Probably an alteration (due to words ending in -ish: abolish, banish, cherish, establish, furnish, etc.) of earlier astony, astone, astun (“to astonish, stun”), from Middle English astoneyen, astonen (“to stun, astonish”), variant of stonen, stoneyen (“to stun, astonish”) prefixed with a-. However, compare Old French estonir, a rare variant of estoner (“to stun, astonish”).