nonplussed
/ˌnɑnˈplʌst/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.12 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
10
Letters
2
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Unsure how to act or respond; bewildered, perplexed.
verb
simple past and past participle of nonplus
Example Sentences
- "[N]ote the honeſt Quaker vvas nonpluſſed, and greatly ſurprized at that Queſtion."
- "I could not discern what she meant, and I would not ask her: I was nonplussed."
- "For the nonce he was rather nonplussed but inasmuch as the duty plainly devolved upon him to take some measures on the subject he pondered suitable ways and means during which Stephen repeatedly yawned."
- "You couldn’t have told it from my manner, but I was feeling more than a bit nonplussed. The spectacle before me was enough to nonplus anyone."
- "In the opposite direction the allowance of 103 min. for the 83.8 miles from Waterloo to Salisbury, which has remained untouched since the worst period in the war, when it included a Woking stop that long since has been excised, was another timing that left drivers completely nonplussed at times as to how to fill it out."
- ""I regard Dean [W. P.] Baddeley's gambling activities with embarrassment and dismay," said Anglican dean of Melbourne S. Barton Babbage. […] The Rev. Baddeley remained nonplussed. "I don't intend to make a habit of going to the races but I feel clergymen should mix as our Lord did with all walks of life," Dr. Baddeley said."
Etymology
From nonplus (“state of bewilderment or perplexity”, noun) or nonplus (“to bewilder or perplex (someone)”, verb) + -ed (suffix forming adjectives, and the past tense and past participle forms of verbs). Nonplus (noun) is derived from Latin nōn plūs (“no further, no more”), from nōn (“not”) + plūs (“additionally, more; further”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *pleh₁- (“to fill”)). The etymological sense is similar to being left speechless as a result of confusion: the nonplussed person can say or do “no more”. Adjective sense 2 (“unaffected”) is probably from a misinterpretation of the first element of the word as the prefix non- meaning “not”.
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˌnɑnˈplʌst/
- British English: /nɒnˈplʌst/