English

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Etymology

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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.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈsʌdən/, [ˈsʌdn̩]
  • Audio (US):(file)
  • Rhymes: -ʌdən
  • Hyphenation: sud‧den

Adjective

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sudden (comparative suddener, superlative suddenest)

  1. Occurring quickly with little or no warning or expectation; instantly.
    The sudden drop in temperature left everyone cold and confused.
    • 1552, The Boke of Common Prayer [etc.][1], The Letanie:
      From lightninges and tempeſtes, from plage, peſtilence, and famine, from battayle and murther, and from ſodayn death. / Good lord deliver us.
    • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter I, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y., London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:
      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. (obsolete) Hastily prepared or employed; quick; rapid.
    • c. 1599, William Shakespeare, Henry V, act 1, scene 1:
      Never was such a sudden scholar made.
    • 1649, John Milton, Eikonoklastes:
      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.
    • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, [], →OCLC, Canto XIV, page 22:
      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.
  3. (obsolete) Hasty; violent; rash; precipitate.

Synonyms

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Antonyms

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Derived terms

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Translations

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Adverb

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sudden (comparative more sudden, superlative most sudden)

  1. (poetic) Suddenly.
    • 1667, John Milton, “Book VII”, in Paradise Lost. [], London: [] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker []; [a]nd by Robert Boulter []; [a]nd Matthias Walker, [], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: [], London: Basil Montagu Pickering [], 1873, →OCLC:
      Herbs of every leaf that sudden flowered.

Noun

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sudden (plural suddens)

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

Derived terms

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Translations

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Further reading

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Swedish

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Noun

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sudden

  1. definite singular of sudd c
  2. definite plural of sudd n