surprising

English

Etymology

From surprise +‎ -ing.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /səˈpɹaɪzɪŋ/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /sɚˈpɹaɪzɪŋ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• (General American, r-dissimilation) IPA^(key): /səˈpɹaɪzɪŋ/
• Hyphenation: sur‧pris‧ing
• Rhymes: -aɪzɪŋ

Verb

surprising

1. present participle and gerund of surprise

Adjective

surprising (comparative more surprising, superlative most surprising)

1. Causing surprise.

   A surprising number of people attended the rally.

   • 2011 November 3, David Ornstein, “Macc Tel-Aviv 1-2 Stoke”, in BBC Sport:

     With this the second of three games in seven days for Stoke, it was hardly surprising to see nine changes from the side that started against Newcastle in the Premier League on Monday.

   • 2013 July 6, “The rise of smart beta”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8843, page 68:

     Investors face a quandary. Cash offers a return of virtually zero in many developed countries; government-bond yields may have risen in recent weeks but they are still unattractive. Equities have suffered two big bear markets since 2000 and are wobbling again. It is hardly surprising that pension funds, insurers and endowments are searching for new sources of return.

Synonyms

• astonishing, unexpected

Derived terms

• surprisingly

See Thesaurus:surprising

Translations

that is or are a surprise

Armenian: զարմանալի (hy) (zarmanali) Bashkir: ғәжәп (ğəjəp), аптырарлыҡ (aptırarlıq), иҫ киткес (iś kitkes) Belarusian: дзі́ўны (dzíŭny) Bulgarian: изненадващ (bg) (iznenadvašt), неочакван (bg) (neočakvan) Catalan: sorprenent (ca) Dutch: verrassend (nl) Esperanto: miriga Estonian: üllatav Finnish: yllättävä (fi) French: surprenant (fr), étonnant (fr), surprenante (fr) f, étonnante (fr) f Galician: sorprendente German: überraschend (de), verwunderlich (de), erstaunlich (de) Greek: εκπληκτικός (el) (ekpliktikós) Hungarian: meglepő (hu) Italian: sorprendente (it) Latvian: pārsteidzošs Norman: surprannant Norwegian: Bokmål: overraskende (no) Persian: شگفت‌انگیز (šegeft-angiz), تعجب‌آور (ta'ajjob-âvar) Polish: cudowny (pl) Portuguese: surpreendente (pt) Romanian: surprinzător (ro) Russian: удиви́тельный (ru) (udivítelʹnyj), порази́тельный (ru) (porazítelʹnyj), ди́вный (ru) (dívnyj) Sanskrit: चित्र (sa) (citra) Slovak: prekvapivý Spanish: sorprendente (es) Swedish: överraskande (sv) Turkish: şaşırtıcı (tr), ilginç (tr) Ukrainian: ди́вний (dývnyj) Walloon: saizixhant (wa) m, sbarant (wa) m, ewaerant (wa) m Welsh: syndodol

Noun

surprising (plural surprisings)

1. A situation in which somebody is surprised.
   • 1983, David Dowling, Novelists on Novelists, page xii:

     But the comments of most of these novelists are the record of their continual surprisings by the varieties of moral and aesthetic truths.