as in surprises
to make a strong impression on (someone) with something unexpected
everyone was thunderstruck when she quit her job without warning
Synonyms & Similar Words
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Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for thunderstrikes
Verb
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The Shrivers’ lasting influence still surprises their children.—
Liz McNeil,
PEOPLE,
22 Apr. 2026 -
Nothing surprises you at Forest, but the Pereira situation feels relatively settled at present.—
David Ornstein,
New York Times,
16 Apr. 2026
Verb
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The second thing that strikes me more and actually amazes me is the fact that this is a story, a trope, that is repeated in most of the presentation of Agnes Pockels.—
Mariel Carr,
Scientific American,
20 Mar. 2026
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Eva’s romance with her husband, Franklin Plaskett, delights and amazes her.—
Adelle Waldman,
The Atlantic,
10 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Bubbles Didn’t Enter The Picture That Early In one of the moist unintentionally hilarious moments in the movie, Michael shocks his family by adopting a CGI baby chimpanzee named Bubbles sometime around 1979.—
Andy Greene,
Rolling Stone,
25 Apr. 2026
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When harvested, the roots are cut, which shocks the plant and can delay root reestablishment for several weeks.—
Ryan Bearss,
The Conversation,
20 Apr. 2026
Verb
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Frankie Grande stuns in a velvet and diamond-studded emsemble for the premiere of Broadway's Titanique on April 12.—
Katie Hill,
PEOPLE,
15 Apr. 2026
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Trump's attack stuns the world.—
Kim Hjelmgaard,
USA Today,
15 Apr. 2026
Verb
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If hypotheticals about what could have been are a good dream for New York Knicks fans, then Mikal Bridges is the alarm clock that startles them awake.—
James L. Edwards III,
New York Times,
2 Mar. 2026
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The project, which Steinberger has rebranded multiple times—evolving from Clawdbot to Moltbot and finally to OpenClaw—largely owing to politics—has expanded at a pace that startles even seasoned AI experts.—
Eva Roytburg,
Fortune,
19 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Woody Harrelson rocks a newsboy cap at the premiere of Animal Farm in New York City on April 21.—
Katie Hill,
PEOPLE,
24 Apr. 2026
Verb
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More than 42,000 of those pieces were found over just the past eight years of excavation, a pace that astonishes even the researchers leading the work.—
Ryan Brennan
April 1,
Kansas City Star,
1 Apr. 2026
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His work astonishes and moves people far beyond the fashion bubble to this day.—
WWD Staff,
Footwear News,
10 Sep. 2025
Verb
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The order in which those balls were plucked out of those bowls over the next few minutes would determine the World Cup matchups in June–and the psychological state of so many soccer fans.—
Sean Gregory,
Time,
5 Dec. 2025
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Cite this Entry
“Thunderstrikes.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/thunderstrikes. Accessed 2 May. 2026.
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