Standard Lemma guide

startled

adj · verb · 3 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.

  • General-American: /ˈstɑɹt.l̩d/
  • Received-Pronunciation: /ˈstɑːt.l̩d/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • CMU ARPABET: S T AA1 R T AH0 L D Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

adj

Meaning 1

Surprised and slightly frightened.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: spooked

Antonyms: none provided

2

verb

Meaning 2

simple past and past participle of startle

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: form-of, participle, past

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

adjective satellite

Meaning 3

excited by sudden surprise or alarm and making a quick involuntary movement

Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0

Examples

  • students startled by the teacher's quiet return
  • the sudden fluttering of the startled pigeons
  • her startled expression

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.

Across languages

Translations

18 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Central Bikol: kigkig — surprised and slightly frightened
  • Dutch: geschrokken — surprised and slightly frightened
  • Finnish: pelästynyt — surprised and slightly frightened
  • Finnish: säikähtänyt — surprised and slightly frightened
  • French: effarouché — surprised and slightly frightened
  • French: surpris — surprised and slightly frightened
  • German: erschrocken — surprised and slightly frightened
  • Italian: spaventato — surprised and slightly frightened
  • Romanian: surprins — surprised and slightly frightened
  • Russian: испу́ганный (ispúgannyj) — surprised and slightly frightened
  • Russian: напу́ганный (napúgannyj) — surprised and slightly frightened
  • Russian: испуга́вшийся (ispugávšijsja) — surprised and slightly frightened
  • Spanish: sorprendido — surprised and slightly frightened
  • Spanish: sobresaltado — surprised and slightly frightened
  • Spanish: sobrecogido — surprised and slightly frightened
  • Swedish: skrämd — surprised and slightly frightened
  • Swedish: överraska — surprised and slightly frightened
  • Ukrainian: зля́каний (zljákanyj) — surprised and slightly frightened