Astounding

How to spell astounding

10 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce astounding

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does astounding mean?

1. adjectiveSo surprising or impressive that it amazes; remarkable to an almost unbelievable degree.

Astounding in a sentence

• The company posted an astounding profit in its first year of trading.

• The view from the summit was absolutely astounding.

Where does astounding come from?

Language of origin: French

This word traces back through Middle English to the Old French verb estoner, which meant to stun, daze, or leave someone thunderstruck. That French verb is generally reconstructed from a Vulgar Latin form extonare, built on the Latin tonare meaning to thunder, so the underlying image is of a person left reeling as if struck by a thunderclap. The same Latin root for thunder lies behind the English words detonate and astonish, which is a close cousin of astound. Astound itself emerged in English around the late 1500s, probably reshaped from the older participle astoned (stunned), and the present participle astounding then came to describe anything that produces that stunned, amazed reaction. The spelling trap is the silent thunder connection: the unstressed second syllable and the -ou- can blur, but remembering tonare (thunder) helps fix the middle of the word.

How the word is built

• astound (from Old French estoner: to stun, daze)
• -ing (adjective/participle suffix)