suddenly

suddenly

English

Etymology

From Middle English sodenly, sodeynly, sodeinliche, sodaynlyche; equivalent to sudden +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsʌdn̩li/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adverb

suddenly (comparative more suddenly, superlative most suddenly)

1. Happening quickly and with little or no warning; in a sudden manner.

   Suddenly, the heavens opened and we all got drenched.

   • 2014 October 21, Oliver Brown, “Oscar Pistorius jailed for five years – sport afforded no protection against his tragic fallibilities: Bladerunner's punishment for killing Reeva Steenkamp is but a frippery when set against the burden that her bereft parents, June and Barry, must carry [print version: No room for sentimentality in this tragedy, 13 September 2014, p. S22]”, in The Daily Telegraph (Sport)‎:

     But ever since the concept of "hamartia" recurred through Aristotle's Poetics, in an attempt to describe man's ingrained iniquity, our impulse has been to identify a telling defect in those brought suddenly and dramatically low.

Synonyms

• all of a sudden

Antonyms

• unsuddenly

Derived terms

• suddenliness

Translations

happening quickly and with little or no warning

Afrikaans: skielik (af) Albanian: papritur (sq), papritmas (sq), befas (sq) Arabic: فَجْأَةً‎ (fajʾatan) Armenian: հանկարծակի (hy) (hankarcaki), հանկարծ (hy) (hankarc) Azerbaijani: birdən-birə, qəflətən (az), qəfildən (az), birdən (az) Bashkir: ҡапыл (qapıl), кинәт (kinät) Belarusian: ра́птам (ráptam) Bengali: হঠাৎ (hôṭhat) Bulgarian: внеза́пно (bg) (vnezápno), ненаде́йно (bg) (nenadéjno) Burmese: ရုတ်တရက် (my) (rutta.rak), ဆိုးခနဲဆတ်ခနဲ (my) (hcui:hka.nai:hcathka.nai:) Catalan: de sobte (ca), sobtadament (ca), (colloquial) tot d'una (ca), de cop i volta Chickasaw: himó̠nali' Chinese: Cantonese: 一吓 (jat1 haa5), 突然 (dat6 jin4), 突然間 (dat6 jin4 gaan1) Mandarin: 突然 (zh) (tūrán) Cornish: distowgh, a-dhesempis Czech: náhle (cs) Danish: pludseligt Dutch: plotseling (nl), plots (nl), plotsklaps (nl), ineens (nl), pardoes (nl) Esperanto: subite Estonian: äkki (et) Finnish: yhtäkkiä (fi), äkkiä (fi) French: soudainement (fr), tout d'un coup (fr) Old French: soudainnemant Galician: de súpeto, de socato, subitamente Georgian: უეცრად (uecrad), მოულოდნელად (moulodnelad), ანაზდად (anazdad), უცბად (ucbad) German: plötzlich (de), urplötzlich (de) (emph.), unversehens (de) (exalted) Gothic: 𐌰𐌽𐌰𐌺𐍃 (anaks) Greek: ξαφνικά (el) (xafniká) Ancient: ἄφνω (áphnō) Hebrew: פתאום‎ (he) (pit'óm) Hindi: अचानक (hi) (acānak), एकाएक (hi) (ekāek), सहसा (hi) (sahsā) Hungarian: hirtelen (hu), egyszer csak Icelandic: brátt, skyndilega (is), snögglega, hastarlega Ido: subite (io) Indonesian: secara tiba-tiba, mendadak (id), tiba-tiba Interlingua: subito Irish: go tobann, de gheit Italian: all'improvviso (it), improvvisamente (it) Japanese: 突然 (ja) (とつぜん, totsuzen) Khmer: ស្រាប់តែ (km) (srap tae), ភ្លាមនោះ (pliem nuh) Korean: 갑자기 (ko) (gapjagi) Kurdish: Central Kurdish: لەپڕ‎ (ku) (lepirr) Lao: please add this translation if you can Latgalian: ūmai, pieški Latin: repente, subito, derepente Latvian: pēkšņi Lithuanian: staiga Macedonian: наеднаш (naednaš), одеднаш (odednaš) Malay: tiba-tiba (ms) Malayalam: പെട്ടന്ന് (peṭṭannŭ), പെട്ടെന്ന് (ml) (peṭṭennŭ) Maori: whakarere (placed after a verb) Marathi: अचानक (mr) (acānak) Mbyá Guaraní: xapy'a Mongolian: гэнэт (mn) (genet) Nepali: अचानक (ne) (acānak), एक्कासि (ne) (ekkāsi) Norwegian: Bokmål: plutselig (no), med ett Old English: fǣrlīċe Oriya: please add this translation if you can Persian: ناگهان‎ (fa) (nâgahân) Plautdietsch: onverhofs Polish: nagle (pl), raptem (pl), z nagła, znienacka (pl) Portuguese: de repente (pt), repentinamente (pt), subitamente (pt) Romanian: subit (ro), brusc (ro), deodată (ro), instantaneu (ro) Russian: вдруг (ru) (vdrug), неожи́данно (ru) (neožídanno), внеза́пно (ru) (vnezápno), скоропостижно (ru) (skoropostižno) Samoan: fa'afuase'i Sanskrit: सहसा (sa) (sahasā), सपदि (sa) (sapadi) Sardinian: Logudorese: improntùitu, indùna, setzi, tottindunu Scottish Gaelic: gu h-obann, gu grad Slovene: naênkrat Spanish: de repente (es), repentinamente (es), de pronto, súbitamente (es) Swahili: ghafula Swedish: plötsligt (sv), med ens (sv), plötsligen (sv) Sylheti: ꠀꠈꠔꠣ (axóta) Tamil: please add this translation if you can Telugu: అకస్మాత్తుగా (te) (akasmāttugā) Tetum: please add this translation if you can Thai: เร็ว (th) (reo) Tibetan: ཧོབ་ཏེ་ཁ་ལ (hob te kha la) Tocharian B: istak, ramer Tongan: fakatuʻupakē Turkish: aniden (tr), ansızın (tr), birden (tr), birdenbire (tr), gafleten (tr) Ukrainian: раптово (raptovo), несподівано (nespodivano), знена́цька (znenácʹka) Urdu: اچانک‎ (acānak) Vietnamese: thình lình (vi), đột ngột (vi), bỗng (vi), chợt (vi) Welsh: yn sydyn Yiddish: אויףֿ‎ (oyf), מיט אַ מאָל‎ (mit a mol), פּלוצלינג‎ (plutsling)