Sudden Meaning
/ˈsʌd.ən/Definition, CEFR level A2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
adjOccurring quickly with little or no warning or expectation; instantly.
adjHastily prepared or employed; quick; rapid.
Sentence Examples
The sudden increase of cars is causing a large number of traffic accidents every day.
A sudden illness prevented him from going there.
News of his sudden and unexpected death came as a great shock.
CEFR Practice Quiz
There is a ____ drop in temperature outside that makes everyone shiver.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
A ____ change in the weather forced us to cancel our outdoor plans and stay inside for the afternoon.
Word Origin & History
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.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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:
"I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn."
— 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
"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:
"And if along with these should come
The man I held as half-divine;
Should strike a sudden hand in mine,
And ask a thousand things of home; […]
I should not feel it to be strange."
— 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], “Canto XIV”, in In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 22:
Explore More A2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
There is a ____ drop in temperature outside that makes everyone shiver.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
A ____ change in the weather forced us to cancel our outdoor plans and stay inside for the afternoon.