Stun

How to spell stun

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce stun

What does stun mean?

1. verbTo daze or knock senseless with a blow, shock, or loud noise.
2. verbTo shock or astonish someone so greatly that they are momentarily speechless.

Stun in a sentence

• A hard knock to the head can stun a boxer for several seconds.

• The surprise verdict was enough to stun the whole courtroom.

• The loud blast was meant to stun the suspect rather than harm him.

• The size of the final bill will stun most first-time buyers.

Where does stun come from?

Language of origin: French

This short, punchy word reaches English from Old French estoner, meaning 'to daze, to stupefy, or to amaze', which descends from a Vulgar Latin form extonare. That Latin verb was built from ex- (a prefix meaning 'out' or 'thoroughly') and tonare, the verb 'to thunder', so the literal idea was of being struck as if by a thunderclap. The sense moved naturally from 'overwhelmed by a loud noise or a blow' to 'knocked senseless' and then on to 'astonished'. The same Latin root sits inside the close relatives 'astonish' and 'astound', which is a useful memory hook: stun is simply the blunt, one-syllable cousin of those longer words. English shortened the borrowed form down to its bare core by the medieval period, and the spelling has stayed simple ever since.

How the word is built

• stun (single root verb, no prefix or suffix)