SHELL-SHOCKED Synonyms: 77 Similar and Opposite Words

shell-shocked

adjective

ˈshel-ˌshäkt

Definition of shell-shocked

as in stressed

suffering from high levels of physical and especially psychological stress even after the long furlough, the returning soldiers still felt a little shell-shocked

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in dazed

suffering from mental confusion shell-shocked survivors who were in dire need of every kind of help

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of shell-shocked At halftime, as Duke’s players tersely ran back to the locker room with Siena ahead 43-32, the Blue Devils — and their extended traveling party — were shell-shocked. — Brendan Marks, New York Times, 20 Mar. 2026 At halftime of Wednesday night’s game against Villanova at Finneran Pavilion, the UConn women’s basketball team looked shell-shocked. — Emily Adams, Hartford Courant, 19 Feb. 2026 Despite being billed as the head and heart of the new and improved Tender, Henry actually freezes in the meeting with the regulator, shell-shocked by a single reference to his failure at Lumi. — Amanda Whiting, Vulture, 26 Jan. 2026 That likability should help appease an employee base which has become shell-shocked with cuts and layoffs over decades of mergers. — Lillian Rizzo,alex Sherman, CNBC, 22 Aug. 2025 See All Example Sentences for shell-shocked

Recent Examples of Synonyms for shell-shocked

Adjective

Du says more work is needed to fully understand how music soothes a stressed brain.

— Payal Dhar, Scientific American, 7 Sep. 2026
Leonardo DiCaprio is put in quite the pickle as a stressed spy in the solid political thriller.

— Brian Truitt, USA Today, 28 Aug. 2026

Definition of stressed

Adjective

Hsu maps a Los Angeles of leftovers and castoffs; portraits of friends and strangers in the street are full of dazed, inscrutable expressions.

— Hua Hsu, New Yorker, 5 Sep. 2026
When the dazed young woman reels off quotes from an obscure self-help book, her new acolytes take her words as gnomic wisdom.

— Guy Lodge, Variety, 31 Aug. 2026

Definition of dazed

Adjective

Five o’clock Saturday, the Riverside Stadium and Middlesbrough head coach Kim Hellberg is fist-pumping a half-bewildered but fully enthused home crowd.

— Michael Walker, New York Times, 15 Sep. 2026
When kids first got online, parents were bewildered and alarmed, but kids, who tend to gravitate to new technology, found freedom in a space that was basically ungoverned.

— Joshua Rothman, New Yorker, 4 Sep. 2026

Definition of bewildered

Adjective

Fernández’s adaptation is anxious to turn tragedy into a sermon, offering theatergoers moral solace where Sophocles leaves his audience in a contemplative state of stunned silence.

— Theater Critic, Los Angeles Times, 11 Sep. 2026
What happened next — footage of a stunned DeLonge, Hoppus, and Barker on set watching President Bush’s address after the attacks— aired later that week on MTV News.

— Sarah Shanfield, Vulture, 11 Sep. 2026

Definition of stunned

Adjective

In the moment, however, Martins imbues tremendous intrigue through snippets of the seemingly distracted middle-aged driver, Wesley (Renato Novaes), and eventually, through the crash itself.

— Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 13 Sep. 2026
Following instructions from the kidnappers (unbeknownst to his increasingly agitated comrades), Lee drives out to meet them for the exchange, only to wreck his car and become distracted saving a nearby woman, Hua (Moon Lee).

— Jake Cole, IndieWire, 10 Sep. 2026

Definition of distracted

Browse Nearby Words

shells

shell-shocked

shells out

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“Shell-shocked.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/shell-shocked. Accessed 16 Sep. 2026.

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Synonyms of shell-shocked

adjective

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