surprisingly

adverb

sur·​pris·​ing·​ly sər-ˈprī-ziŋ-lē 

sə-

1

: in a surprising manner : to a surprising degree

a surprisingly fast runner

2

: it is surprising that

surprisingly, voter turnout was high

Examples of surprisingly in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

March 21 – April 19 A private subject could get surprisingly heated this morning. — Tarot.com, Hartford Courant, 2 Oct. 2026

Polls shared with Semafor show Democratic candidates running surprisingly competitively in the 9th and the 10th Congressional Districts. — semafor.com, 2 Oct. 2026

History was made this week on Capitol Hill when a female senator womansplained sports to a male senator, and surprisingly, the gender-shaming reversal did not cause the universe to collapse on itself. — Lorraine Ali, Los Angeles Times, 1 Oct. 2026

Becca Rothfeld reports from the (surprisingly philosophical) Pro-Human Assembly. — Literary Hub, 1 Oct. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1661, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for surprisingly

• tantalizingly
• unsurprisingly
• uncompromisingly

Kids Definition

surprisingly

adverb

sur·​pris·​ing·​ly -lē 

1

: in a surprising manner : to a surprising degree

a surprisingly fast runner

2

: it is surprising that

surprisingly, no one disagreed