How to spell surprised

hear itsur·prised/sɝr'praɪzd/adjectiveLong vowels

What it means: Taken unawares or suddenly feeling wonder.

In a sentence: I was surprised to see a rainbow after the rain.

The part people get wrong

Watch for an unstressed vowel that is hard to hear. Often misspelled as suprised or surprized.

Same family: surprise, surprising, surprisingly, surpriser, astonished. If you can spell one, the shared part carries to the others.

Where it comes from: “Surprised” comes from the Old French word “surprise,” meaning “unexpected attack,” from the verb “surprendre,” ‘to overtake.’ Over time, the meaning softened from being suddenly attacked to simply being suddenly amazed.

Patterns it uses: The unstressed vowel (schwa)

Try spelling it

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Words like this

security · purchase · phenomenon · knowledge · phobia · additional · never · little

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