Amazed

How to spell amazed

6 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce amazed

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does amazed mean?

1. adjectiveFilled with great surprise, wonder, or astonishment.

Amazed in a sentence

• The auditors were amazed at how quickly the figures had been corrected.

• She stood amazed in front of the restored painting for several minutes.

Where does amazed come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

The word amazed grows out of the Old English verb amasian, meaning 'to stun' or 'to bewilder', built on a base related to 'maze'. In its earliest sense it described someone struck senseless or thrown into confusion, much closer to being dazed than to feeling delighted wonder. Over the late medieval and early modern period the sense softened and brightened, so that to be amazed shifted from 'stupefied with shock' toward 'filled with astonishment and admiration'. The shared root explains why a 'maze' is a confusing tangle of paths, and why 'amazed' once carried that same flavour of being lost and bewildered. The modern positive shading, where amazement is usually pleasant surprise, was firmly settled by Shakespeare's time. The spelling is reliably regular, which is why the main thing to watch is the single z and the simple -ed ending.

How the word is built

• a- (intensive prefix)
• maze (to bewilder, confuse)
• -ed (past participle suffix)