Definition of "astonishment" []

• Great surprise or amazement. (noun)
• A cause of amazement; a marvel. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The Romans used the verb _stupeo_, a term which strongly marks the state of an astonished mind, to express the effect either of simple fear, or of astonishment; the word _attonitus_ (thunderstruck) is equally expressive of the alliance of these ideas; and do not the French _étonnement_, and the English _astonishment_ and _amazement_, point out as clearly the kindred emotions which attend fear and wonder?"
• "Why does this not seem to bother our actual children? and Captain Huggy Face made it a good week by dancing out the word "astonishment.""
• "People - and by no means professional philosophers only - often have experiences which they describe as astonishment at the fact of existence, awe in the face of 'Nothingness', apprehension of the unreality of the world or the feeling that whatever is impermanent must be accounted for by what is indestructible."