sudden

English

Etymology

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

• IPA^(key): /ˈsʌdən/, [ˈsʌdn̩]

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌdən
• Hyphenation: sud‧den

Adjective

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.
   • c. 1591–1595, William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, act 2, scene 2:

     I have no joy of this contract to-night: / It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden;

Synonyms

• (happening quickly): abrupt, precipitous, subitaneous; see also Thesaurus:sudden
• (hasty, rash): hotheaded, impetuous, impulsive; see also Thesaurus:reckless

Antonyms

• (antonym(s) of “happening quickly”): gradual; see also Thesaurus:gradual
• (antonym(s) of “all”): unsudden

Derived terms

• all of a sudden
• all on a sudden
• all the sudden
• a quick drop and a sudden stop
• a short drop and a sudden stop
• sudden arrhythmic death syndrome
• sudden death
• sudden death syndrome
• sudden fiction
• sudden infant death syndrome
• suddenly
• suddenness
• sudden oak death
• sudden sniffing death syndrome
• sudden stratospheric warming
• suddenty
• sudden unexpected death syndrome
• sudden unexplained death syndrome
• sudden unexplained nocturnal death syndrome
• sudden victory
• suddenwoven

Translations

happening quickly and with little or no warning

• Albanian: please add this translation if you can
• Arabic: مُبَاغِت (mubāḡit), مُفَاجِئ (mufājiʔ)
• Armenian: հանկարծակի (hy) (hankarcaki), անակնկալ (hy) (anaknkal)
• Azerbaijani: qəfil
• Belarusian: рапто́ўны (raptóŭny)
• Bulgarian: внезапен (bg) (vnezapen)
• Catalan: sobtat (ca)
• Cebuano: kalit
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 突然 (zh) (tūrán), 急劇 / 急剧 (zh) (jíjù)

• Czech: náhlý (cs)
• Danish: brat (da), pludselig (da)
• Dutch: plotseling (nl), plotselinge (nl)
• Esperanto: subita (eo)
• Estonian: äkiline
• Finnish: yhtäkkinen (fi), äkillinen (fi)
• French: soudain (fr), subit (fr)
• Galician: repentino, súbito
• Georgian: please add this translation if you can
• German: plötzlich (de), jäh (de)
• Greek: ξαφνικός (el) (xafnikós)

  Ancient: αἰφνίδιος (aiphnídios)

• Hebrew: פתאומי (pit'omi)
• Hungarian: hirtelen (hu)
• Icelandic: skyndilegur (is)
• Irish: tobann
• Italian: improvviso (it)
• Japanese: 突然の (ja) (とつぜんの, totsuzen no)
• Khmer: ភ្លាម (km) (phliəm)
• Korean: 급격한 (ko) (geupgyeok-han)
• Latgalian: ūms, pieškys
• Latin: subitus, repentinus, repens
• Latvian: pēkšņs, spējš, straujš
• Livonian: aššõ
• Macedonian: ненадеен (nenadeen), нагол (nagol)
• Malayalam: പെട്ടെന്ന് (ml) (peṭṭennŭ)
• Maori: ohotata, whawhati tata, matawhawhati
• Mongolian:

  Cyrillic: гэнэт (mn) (genet)

  Mongolian: ᢉᠡᠨᠡᠳᠲᠡ

• Occitan: subte (oc)
• Old English: fǣrlīċ
• Polish: nagły (pl)
• Portuguese: repentino (pt), súbito (pt)
• Romanian: subit (ro), brusc (ro), neașteptat (ro), neprevăzut (ro)
• Russian: неожи́данный (ru) (neožídannyj), внеза́пный (ru) (vnezápnyj)
• Samoan: fa'afuase'i
• Scottish Gaelic: obann, grad
• Serbo-Croatian: ȉznenādan (sh), nȅnādan (sh), nágao (sh)
• Slovak: náhly
• Spanish: repentino (es), súbito (es), brusco (es)
• Swahili: ghafla (sw)
• Swedish: plötslig (sv), abrupt (sv)
• Tagalog: biglaan, kagyat, kaagad, bigla (tl), mabilis, kaginsa-ginsa
• Telugu: హఠాత్తుగా (te) (haṭhāttugā), అకస్మాత్తుగా (te) (akasmāttugā)
• Tetum: please add this translation if you can
• Thai: กะทันหัน (th) (gà-tan-hǎn)
• Tongan: fakatuʻupakē
• Turkish: ani (tr)
• Ukrainian: рапто́вий (raptóvyj), несподі́ваний (nespodívanyj), на́глий (uk) (náhlyj)
• Vietnamese: thình lình (vi), đột ngột (vi)

Adverb

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

sudden (plural suddens)

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

Derived terms

• all of a sudden
• all of the sudden
• of a sudden
• on a sudden
• upon a sudden

Translations

surprise — see surprise

Further reading

• “sudden”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “sudden”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
• “sudden”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

Swedish

Noun

sudden

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