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Definition of surprise
1a : an attack made without warningb : a taking unawares
2 : something that surprises
3 : the feeling caused by something unexpected or unusual
Indulge Your Inner Word Nerd
Examples of surprise in a Sentence
What a pleasant surprise to see you!
It's no surprise that he doesn't want to go.
Is it any surprise that she should feel disappointed?
The teacher sprang a surprise on us and gave a pop quiz.
I have a special surprise for the children.
The trip was a surprise for her birthday.
Is the party a surprise?
Imagine our surprise when they sold their house and moved to the Bahamas.
He stared at her in surprise.
Recent Examples of surprise from the Web
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Hightower's entrance into the race comes as no surprise as his name has been linked to a possible run for governor for several months.
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But this came as no surprise to Major League Baseball, which reached out to the Marlins for FanFest venue suggestions while planning the All-Star Game.
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Little surprise, then, that the Trump’s administration lax approach to ethics rules rankled Chen.
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KATRIN physicists have run into some nettlesome surprises.
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Even more so when the compound receives a surprise visit from Heinrich Himmler (Eddie Marsan doing a quirky, powerful job as a chilling monster).
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But there are plenty of gee-whiz athletic surprises straight through to the end.
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Rounding out the Styx lineup are Lawrence Gowan (vocals and keyboards), Tommy Shaw (vocals and guitars), Todd Sucherman (drums) and Ricky Phillips (bass) along with the occasional surprise appearance by original bassist Chuck Panozzo.
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On his way home from visiting Mississippi State, Guffey received his final surprise: a call from coach Bohannon, recently named new baseball coach at Alabama.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'surprise'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
surprise
surprize
Definition of surprise
surprised
alsosurprized
;surprising
alsosurprizing
transitive verb
1 : to attack unexpectedly; also : to capture by an unexpected attack
2a : to take unawares Police surprised the burglars in the store.b : to detect or elicit by a taking unawares … sometimes surprised a tragic shadow in her eyes. — Willa Cather
3 : to strike with wonder or amazement especially because unexpected His conduct surprised me.
intransitive verb
: to cause astonishment or surprise Her success didn't surprise.
surpriser
nounExamples of surprise in a Sentence
The results will surprise you.
Nothing you could say would surprise me.
They surprised everyone by moving to the Bahamas.
A police officer surprised the burglars.
The troops were surprised by an attack from the north.
Recent Examples of surprise from the Web
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Second Lady Karen Pence surprised the vice president with the new dog, an Australian Shepherd, on Father's Day.
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The 6-foot-6 New Albany High shooting guard said he wasn't surprised.
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One developer investigated, and his findings may surprise you.
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There are things that are really disappointing about being an actress in Hollywood that surprise me all the time.
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That health care could move votes in this race — even if not enough to swing it — wouldn’t surprise Geoff Garin at Hart Research Associates.
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The northward shift to get to cooler weather was expected, but lead author Songlin Fei of Purdue University and several outside experts were surprised by the move to the west, which was larger and in a majority of the species.
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Much of what Forman reports would not surprise anyone who has spent time at a black church or a black barbershop—or in the company of my mother.
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President Donald Trump surprised foreign-policy experts, human-rights advocates and some of his own staff on April 29 by inviting Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to the White House in November.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'surprise'. Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
First Known Use of surprise
15th century
Synonym Discussion of surprise
Surprise
playDefinition of Surprise
city in south central Arizona west of Phoenix population 117,517
SURPRISE Defined for English Language Learners
surprise
playDefinition of surprise for English Language Learners
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: an unexpected event, piece of information, etc.
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: an unexpected gift, party, etc.
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: the feeling caused by something that is unexpected or unusual
surprise
Definition of surprise for English Language Learners
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: to cause (someone) to feel surprised
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: to find, attack, or meet (someone or something) unexpectedly
SURPRISE Defined for Kids
Definition of surprise for Students
1 : something that is unexpected I have a surprise for you.
2 : astonishment, amazement … it held up to them a little white object. They all looked at it in surprise … — C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
3 : an act or instance of coming upon without warning They were taken by surprise.
Definition of surprise for Students
surprised
;surprising
1 : to cause to feel wonder or amazement because of being unexpected Her resemblance to her father surprised me.
2 : to come upon without warning The robbers were surprised by police.
3 : to attack without warning : capture by an unexpected attack
Law Dictionary
surprise
Legal Definition of surprise
1 : a condition or situation in which a party to a proceeding is unexpectedly placed without any fault or neglect of his or her own and that entitles the party to relief (as a new trial)
2 : an aspect of procedural unconscionability that consists of hiding a term of a contract in a mass of text
Learn More about surprise
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See words that rhyme with surprise Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for surprise Spanish Central: Translation of surprise Nglish: Translation of surprise for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of surprise for Arabic speakers Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about surprise
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