surprisingly
- 1In a way that causes surprise by being unexpected or unusual.
The restaurant was surprisingly quiet for a Friday night.
Surprisingly, the old printer still worked after ten years in the basement.
Similarunexpectedly, remarkably, amazingly, astonishingly, strangely
Oppositeunsurprisingly, predictably
Note
The adverb does two jobs. Before an adjective it measures degree: a house surprisingly small for so large a family. At the head of a sentence, or set off by commas inside one, it comments on the whole statement, much like believe it or not. Not surprisingly turns that comment around to mean what anyone would have predicted, and unsurprisingly says the same in one word.
Use it in a sentence
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Origin
Formed from surprising + the adverb-forming suffix -ly.