# sudden

Pronunciation: say "SUD-uhn" /ˈsʌdn̩/

## Adjective

1. Happening quickly and with little or no warning or expectation.
   - Simple: Happening fast and without warning.
   - _The storm's sudden arrival caught the hikers far from shelter._
   - _Her decision to leave was sudden and left everyone stunned._

## Adverb

2. Quickly and without warning; all at once. *(literary)*
   - Simple: In a quick way, without warning.
   - _The wind dropped sudden, and the sails hung limp._
   - _He woke sudden in the dark, heart pounding._

## Adjective

3. Put together or pressed into use in haste; quick and rapid. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Made or done quickly, in a hurry.
   - _The soldiers raised a sudden rampart of earth before nightfall._
   - _A sudden repast was laid for the travelers who arrived past dark._
4. Hasty in temper or action; rash, violent, and impulsive. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Acting in a hasty, rash way and quick to anger.
   - _The young lord was sudden and fierce, striking before he thought._
   - _Beware his sudden nature, for he brooks no slight._

## Noun

5. An event that comes without warning; a surprise. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: Something surprising that happens without warning.
   - _His return after ten years was a sudden none had foreseen._
   - _The ambush, a cruel sudden, scattered the merchants on the road._

## Origin

"Sudden" came through Middle English "sodeyn" and Anglo-Norman "sodein" from Old French "sodain" (immediate, sudden), from Vulgar Latin *subitānus and Latin subitāneus (sudden), from subitus (sudden, literally "that which has come stealthily"), the past participle of subīre ("to come or go stealthily"), from sub (under) plus īre (go). It displaced the native Old English fǣrlīċ.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/sudden (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).