astonishing

1. 1
   adjective

   Causing great surprise or amazement.

   The team staged an astonishing comeback in the final two minutes.

   The telescope returned astonishing images of galaxies no one had seen before.

   Similaramazing, astounding, remarkable, staggering, stunning

   Oppositeunremarkable, ordinary, unsurprising, predictable

2. 2
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of astonish.

   The startup is astonishing investors with its rapid growth.

   Astonishing your critics is sometimes the best answer to their doubts.

   Note

   Here the word is still a verb, and it needs someone on the receiving end. One spelling serves the progressive (the startup is astonishing investors) and the verbal noun (astonishing your critics). To tell it from the everyday adjective, look for the object. The verb takes one and cannot be graded. The adjective takes none and compares with more and most, as in the most astonishing result.

Showing meanings only. Show all 2