astonish
/əˈstɒnɪʃ/
"astonish" is a 8-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“astonish” is uncommon English (frequency #54,625 among 3,931 “A” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #54,625
- frequency rank, English
- 3,931
- “A” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - To surprise greatly.
Corpus desk
Index EN-astonish · astonish · English
astonish · rank #54,625 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #54,625
- LEN-LONG 8 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 3,931
- PHOTO-FINISH auteur
Nearest frequency peer: auteur (+1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Long-tail ranks near “astonish”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- aquaria
aquaria
45,382 corpus weight
- Arca
Arca
45,381 corpus weight
- Ardmore
Ardmore
45,380 corpus weight
- astonish
astonish
45,376 corpus weight
- auteur
auteur
45,375 corpus weight
- Azov
Azov
45,371 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “astonish” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | astonish |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | /əˈstɒnɪʃ/ |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #54,625 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “astonish” in English
Rare enough to double-check
astonish is uncommon English at frequency #54,625 among 3,931 “A” headwords, classed as averb, transcribed /əˈstɒnɪʃ/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "To surprise greatly.".
Zero misspellings are on record for astonish in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This entry stands alone in our confusable dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.
Etymologically, the entry records: Probably an alteration (due to words ending in -ish: abolish, banish, cherish, establish, furnish, etc.) of earlier astony, astone, astun (“to astonish, stun”), from Middle English astoneyen, astonen (“to stun, astonish”), variant of stonen, stoneyen (“to s… The correct English form is astonish, spelled A-S-T-O-N-I-S-H.
Definition
- 1To surprise greatly.
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how astonish appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
"I have no right to give my opinion," said Wickham, "as to his being agreeable or otherwise. I am not qualified to form one. I have known him too long and too well to be a fair judge. It is impossible for me to be impartial. But I believe your opinion of him would in general astonish — and perhaps you would not express it quite so strongly anywhere else.…
Etymology
Probably an alteration (due to words ending in -ish: abolish, banish, cherish, establish, furnish, etc.) of earlier astony, astone, astun (“to astonish, stun”), from Middle English astoneyen, astonen (“to stun, astonish”), variant of stonen, stoneyen (“to stun, astonish”) prefixed with a-. However, compare Old French estonir, a rare variant of estoner (“to stun, astonish”).
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "astonish", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).