flabbergast
/ˈflæbɚˌɡæst/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 1.06 in modern English
19
Scrabble Score
11
Letters
3
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To overwhelm with bewilderment; to amaze, confound, or stun, especially in a ludicrous manner.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "He was flabbergasted to find that his work had been done for him before he began."
- "Her stupidity flabbergasts me, and I have to force myself to keep a straight face while she explains her beliefs."
- "The oddity of the situation was so flabbergasting I couldn’t react in time for anyone to see it."
- "Now we are flabbergaſted and bored from morning to night—in the ſenate, at Cox's muſeum, at Ranelagh, and even at church."
- "They flabagast good manners and good morals, and only show that one of the parties is vex'd and disappinted.^([sic])"
- "Now, there are assertions, not dissimilar in their power of benumbing and flabbergasting one, but yet within the bounds of sane and perfectly orderly plausibility, for which our language wants a name. Paradox is too hackneyed a term. They ought to be called Buckleisms. When a man makes an assertion clean in the teeth of all previous belief, and makes it coolly, fluently, without proof, and yet as if contradiction were impossible—that is a Buckleism."
Etymology
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈflæbɚˌɡæst/
- British English: /ˈflæbə(ˌ)ɡɑːst/