What does astoundingly mean?
Astoundingly is an English adverb meaning to a degree that causes overwhelming surprise or amazement. It functions as an emphatic intensifier, most often modifying adjectives — as in astoundingly beautiful, astoundingly successful, or astoundingly high — to signal that something exceeds ordinary expectations by a wide margin. It sits at the strong end of the scale of degree adverbs, more forceful than remarkably or notably and broadly equivalent to astonishingly and incredibly, though it carries a hint of the stunned disbelief implied by its root verb, astound. The word is common in both British and American English and appears comfortably in formal prose, journalism, and everyday speech alike. Though it frequently expresses admiration or wonder, it can also intensify negative shocks, as in an astoundingly poor result. Derived from astound — itself an early modern variant of astonish — it belongs to a small family of related forms including astounding and astounded. Its usefulness lies in conveying extremity with elegance: where plain superlatives can feel blunt, astoundingly lets a writer express sheer amazement with precision and rhetorical force.
adverbTo a degree that causes great surprise or amazement; extremely or remarkably.
- To an extent that causes overwhelming surprise or disbelief; used as an intensifier of degree.
"The team recovered from an astoundingly slow start to win the championship."
"The magician's final trick was astoundingly original — no one in the audience could work out how it was done."
"Sales figures for the quarter were astoundingly good, exceeding every forecast the company had made."
"Astound" was originally just a 17th-century variant of "astonish" — two spellings of one idea that drifted apart until one came to mean shocked speechlessness and the other mere wonder.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of astoundingly
Astoundingly derives from astound, a verb that emerged in English in the late 16th and early 17th century as a variant of astonish. Astonish itself traces back through Middle French estonner ('to stun, thunderstrike') to Vulgar Latin *extonare, from ex- ('out of') plus tonare ('to thunder') — literally 'to thunder out of one's senses'. Astound began as a phonetic variant spelling and gradually established itself as a distinct word implying deeper shock than astonish; the adverb astoundingly developed from its present participle, astounding. Its closest relatives are therefore the astonish family (astonished, astonishing) and other descendants of the Latin verb for thunder.
Related word forms
How astoundingly is actually used
Astoundingly is an emphatic intensifier, stronger than 'remarkably' or 'notably' and roughly on par with 'astonishingly' or 'incredibly'. It typically modifies adjectives (astoundingly beautiful, astoundingly large) rather than verbs, and it suits both formal writing and vivid journalism. It usually connotes positive amazement, but it can intensify negative surprises too (an astoundingly bad decision).
Easily confused with astoundingly
Both mean 'to a surprising degree', but astonishingly derives from 'astonish' while astoundingly carries the slightly stronger force of 'astound'; in everyday use they are near-interchangeable.
Astounded is the adjective/participle describing a person who is amazed, whereas astoundingly is an adverb describing how extreme something is.