What Does Flabbergasted Mean?
If you are flabbergasted, you are extremely surprised. You can hardly believe what you see or hear.
I was flabbergasted when I saw the huge cake.
She looked flabbergasted when she heard the news.
It is stronger than surprised and amazed. It is a big, round, wide-eyes word.
🔊 Pronunciation
FLAB-er-gas-tid
Four parts. The loud part is the first one: FLAB-er-gas-tid.
Say it in two bits: FLAB-er... GAS-tid. Then join them.
🗣️ Natural Examples
Leo was flabbergasted that his dog could open the door.
We were flabbergasted by the size of the whale.
"You won?" said Mia, flabbergasted.
The teacher was flabbergasted by how quickly the class finished.
🛠️ How to Use It
Flabbergasted is an adjective. It describes how a person feels.
- It usually follows be or feel or look: She was flabbergasted.
- The verb is flabbergast: The news flabbergasted me. People use it less often than the adjective.
- A normal pattern is flabbergasted by or flabbergasted at something.
- It is playful and informal. It is great in stories and in speaking.
🤝 Common Word Partners
- completely flabbergasted
- absolutely flabbergasted
- flabbergasted by
- flabbergasted at
- feel flabbergasted
- look flabbergasted
👯 Similar and Related Words
- astonished: very surprised. It sounds more serious.
- amazed: very surprised, often in a good way.
- speechless: so surprised you cannot talk.
- stunned: so shocked you cannot move.
- overwhelmed: too much to handle. It is about size, not surprise.
⚠️ Common Mistakes
Spelling. Look for the double b and the s.
❌ flabergasted, flabbergassted
✅ flabbergasted
Not for small surprises. It is a big word for a big surprise.
❌ I was flabbergasted that it was Tuesday.
✅ I was flabbergasted that my dog opened the door.
Use "by" or "at", not "of".
❌ flabbergasted of the news
✅ flabbergasted by the news
💬 In a Conversation
Zara: I lost my lunch, my pencil case and my hat.
Leo: Are you upset?
Zara: I'm flabbergasted.
Leo: Because you lost them?
Zara: No. Because they were all in my bag.
🕵️ Where Does It Come From?
Nobody knows exactly, but we know when the word first appeared.
The earliest known use is from 1772, in a British magazine called the Annual Register. It was in an article about new words that people were using. The writer complained that the new words made them "flabbergasted" and "bored".
The word looks like it could be flabby plus aghast. That is a popular guess, and nobody has proved it. Writers in the early 1800s said it was a dialect word in some parts of Britain, but that story is not certain either.
So flabbergasted is a mystery word, just like bamboozle.
💡 The OddLingo Trick
Make your eyes as wide as you can. Open your mouth in a big O.
Now say FLAB-ber-GAS-ted. If your face matches the word, you are doing it right.