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Synonyms

all of a sudden

Idioms  

  1. Entirely without warning, abruptly, as in All of a sudden the lights went out. In Shakespeare's day the common phrase was of a sudden, the word all being added in the late 1600s. Also see all at once, def. 2.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

"We noticed that we've put out a whole line of chocolate bars, and then all of a sudden there's only one left," she said.

From BBC

“He didn’t decide all of a sudden I’m going to be in the middle of Los Angeles, or I’m going to be by Houston,” Simmons said.

From The Wall Street Journal

Jonah couldn’t quite understand what was going on, but maybe that was because he felt so dizzy all of a sudden.

From Literature

You don’t have to do much other than replace your normal Hellmann’s mayo and Dijon mustard with a bottle of Ayoh and all of a sudden you have a crunchy dill pickle-flavored turkey sandwich.

From The Wall Street Journal

You’re not sure exactly what happened, but all of a sudden you truly are gone from this world.

From Literature

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.