surprising

adjective

sur·​pris·​ing sər-ˈprī-ziŋ 

sə-

: of a nature that excites surprise

Synonyms of surprising

• startling
• amazing
• shocking
• stunning
• astonishing

Examples of surprising in a Sentence

It's not surprising that he doesn't want to go.

The changes to the campus were surprising.

He shows a surprising lack of concern for others.

A surprising number of people were laid off at the factory.

Recent Examples on the Web

But at many schools, a surprising number of graduates already had their first gig lined up. — Ryan Craig, Forbes.com, 8 Aug. 2026

One of the most surprising findings was that sedentary activity in another context — at work — wasn’t linked to the same brain changes. — Katia Hetter, CNN Money, 8 Aug. 2026

Those open questions do not make DeepMind’s decision surprising to Debora Marks, a computational biologist at Harvard Medical School, whose group pioneered approaches to protein prediction that helped lay the groundwork for AlphaFold. — Mary Randolph, Scientific American, 7 Aug. 2026

The Labor Department numbers showed that 720,000 people dropped out of the labor force in June – and a surprising 700,000 (97%) of them were ages 25 to 34. — Paul Wiseman, Fortune, 7 Aug. 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1614, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for surprising

• advising
• apprising
• arising
• baptizing
• capsizing
• chastising
• comprising
• despising
• devising
• disguising
• downsizing
• excising

Kids Definition

surprising

adjective

sur·​pris·​ing

sə(r)-ˈprī-ziŋ

: causing surprise : amazing