Standard Lemma guide

astonish

verb · 2 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Received-Pronunciation: /əˈstɒnɪʃ/
  • General-American: /əˈstɑnɪʃ/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: AH0 S T AA1 N IH0 SH Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

verb

Meaning 1

To surprise greatly.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: astound, flabbergast, surprise, astony

Antonyms: none provided

2

verb

Meaning 2

affect with wonder

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • Your ability to speak six languages amazes me!

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: amaze, astound

Antonyms: none provided

Broader terms: surprise

Narrower terms: dazzle

History

Etymology

Probably an alteration (due to words ending in -ish: abolish, banish, cherish, establish, furnish, etc.) of earlier astony, astone, astun (“to astonish, stun”), from Middle English astoneyen, astonen (“to stun, astonish”), variant of stonen, stoneyen (“to stun, astonish”) prefixed with a-. However, compare Old French estonir, a rare variant of estoner (“to stun, astonish”).

Across languages

Translations

53 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Arabic: أَذْهَلَ (ʔaḏhala) — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Azerbaijani: heyrətləndimək — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Azerbaijani: heyrətə salmaq — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Basque: estonatu — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Bulgarian: учудвам (učudvam) — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Bulgarian: удивлявам (udivljavam) — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Chinese Mandarin: 震驚 /震惊 (zhènjīng) — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Czech: ohromit — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Danish: forbavse — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Dutch: verbazen — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Esperanto: mirigi — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Finnish: hämmästyttää — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Finnish: ällistää — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • French: étonner — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • French: surprendre — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Galician: abraiar — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Galician: anocer — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Galician: anucir — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Galician: atordoar — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • German: erstaunen — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Greek: εκπλήσσω (ekplísso) — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Ancient Greek: καταπλήσσω (kataplḗssō) — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Hebrew: הדהים (hidhím) — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Hungarian: meglep — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Hungarian: megdöbbent — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Ido: astonar — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Ido: surprizegar — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Indonesian: mengesima — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Italian: sorprendere — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Italian: stupire — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Japanese: 驚かす (odorokasu) — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Macedonian: за́чуди (záčudi) — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Macedonian: вчудо́види (včudóvidi) — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Māori: whakaohomauri — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Māori: whakaohorere — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Norman: êtonner — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Polish: zdumiewać — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Polish: zdumieć — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Portuguese: surpreender — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Portuguese: pasmar — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Russian: удивля́ть (udivljátʹ) — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Russian: удиви́ть (udivítʹ) — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Russian: изумля́ть (izumljátʹ) — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Russian: изуми́ть (izumítʹ) — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Spanish: asombrar — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Spanish: sorprender — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Spanish: pasmar — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Spanish: anonadar — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Swedish: förvåna — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Swedish: förbluffa — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Ukrainian: дивувати (dyvuvaty) — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Ukrainian: вражати (vražaty) — to surprise, astound, flabbergast
  • Yiddish: פֿאַרגאַפֿן (fargafn) — to surprise, astound, flabbergast