Sudden

Pronunciation

• IPA: /ˈsÊŒdÉ™n/
• GenAm IPA: ˈsɐdⁿnÌ©
• Rhymes: -ÊŒdÉ™n
• Hyphenation: sud + den

Origin

From Middle English sodain, from Anglo-Norman sodein, from Old French sodain, subdain ("immediate, sudden"), from Vulgar Latin *subitānus ("sudden"), from Latin subitaneus ("sudden"), from subitus ("sudden", literally, "that which has come stealthily"), originally the past participle of subire ("to come or go stealthily"), from sub ("under") + ire ("go").

Full definition of sudden

Adjective

1. Happening quickly and with little or no warning.
• 1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, Mr. Pratt's Patients Chapter 1, 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.
2. The sudden drop in temperature left everyone cold and confused.
3. (obsolete) Hastily prepared or employed; quick; rapid.
• ShakespeareNever was such a sudden scholar made.
• Miltonthe apples of Asphaltis, appearing goodly to the sudden eye
4. (obsolete) Hasty; violent; rash; precipitate.
• ShakespeareI have no joy of this contract to-night: It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden

Antonyms

• gradual
• unsudden

Derived terms

• all of a sudden
• sudden death
• suddenly
• suddenness
• suddenwoven

Adverb

1. (poetic) Suddenly.
• MiltonHerbs of every leaf that sudden flowered.

Noun

1. (obsolete) An unexpected occurrence; a surprise.

Derived terms

• all of a sudden
• all of the sudden
• of a sudden