Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
😲 Extremely shocking 😵 Making numb
stupefying

stupefying

8.4
Causes someone to be unable to think or feel clearly
  • adjective
  • /ˈstjuːpəˌfaɪɪŋ/
translation icon : aturdidor
  • The magician's tricks were so stupefying that the audience was left speechless.

Examples

  • The news of his sudden departure was stupefying and left everyone in disbelief.

  • Her stupefying lack of awareness about the situation made it hard for others to understand her actions.

  • Centuries after Thomas Wyatt, Marlise lived out his poem with the stupefying literal-mindedness of a grade school dramatization of Hiawatha.

    Fiction book (1998)

  • The rest of his day alternated between stupefying tedium as he bounced in his seat watching everything track a straight line, and frantic concentration as they turned corners and he fought to keep the two drones in formation.

    Fiction book (1994)

  • Shortly thereafter, Lynch and Ostrander succumbed to inanition, a kind of despondent helplessness: manic depression in its most stupefying phase.

    Fiction book (1992)

Synonyms

disorienting
vsstupefying
8 6.0

Making someone feel confused and unable to find their way

causes deeper insensibility and dullness rather than mere confusion

Antonyms

enlightening
43 4.5

Helps you understand something in a new, clearer way

stimulating
1 3.9

To make someone feel more awake and interested

How Numbing

paralyzing
  • US
1 4.6
stupefying
8.4
numbing
1 4.2
deadening
1 6.9
dulled
4.3

Surface Forms

stupefying positive

Morphology

stupefying = stupefy (transparent) = stupefy + ing

The adjectival sense derives directly from the verb base with -ing marking the resulting state of causing stupefaction, which is inferable from the verb.

Etymology

Stupefying comes from the Latin root stupēre ('to be numb') and the verb stupefy ('to make numb'), so it can describe a pain, drug, or boredom that leaves you 'unable to think or feel properly'.