"startle" meaning in English

See startle in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈstɑrt.l̩d/ [US], /ˈstɑːt.l̩d/ [UK] Audio: en-us-startled.ogg [US] Forms: startle [singular], startles [plural]
Head templates: {{noun}} [POS TABLE]
  1. A startle is a surprise or a fright.
    Sense id: simple-startle-en-noun-mYk1wsgw

Verb

IPA: /ˈstɑrt.l̩d/ [US], /ˈstɑːt.l̩d/ [UK] Audio: en-us-startled.ogg [US] Forms: startle [canonical], startles [third-person, singular], startled [past], startled [past, participle], startling [present, participle]
Head templates: {{verb|startl|e}} [POS TABLE]
  1. If you are startled, you jump or move suddenly, often opening your eyes wide, because of a surprise. Synonyms: surprise
    Sense id: simple-startle-en-verb-6ZPOyWJd
{
  "forms": [
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  "lang_code": "en",
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      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "She thought she was alone, but was startled to hear someone behind her.."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you are startled, you jump or move suddenly, often opening your eyes wide, because of a surprise."
      ],
      "id": "simple-startle-en-verb-6ZPOyWJd",
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        }
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  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈstɑrt.l̩d/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈstɑːt.l̩d/",
      "tags": [
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    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-startled.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
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    }
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  "senses": [
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      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "The birthday boy had a startle when we screamed \"Happy birthday\" from behind him."
        }
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        {
          "text": "She thought she was alone, but was startled to hear someone behind her.."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "If you are startled, you jump or move suddenly, often opening your eyes wide, because of a surprise."
      ],
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      ],
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        {
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      "ipa": "/ˈstɑrt.l̩d/",
      "tags": [
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    },
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      "ipa": "/ˈstɑːt.l̩d/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
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    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-startled.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
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    }
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}

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "startle",
      "tags": [
        "singular"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "startles",
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        "plural"
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    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
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    {
      "examples": [
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          "text": "The birthday boy had a startle when we screamed \"Happy birthday\" from behind him."
        }
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        "A startle is a surprise or a fright."
      ]
    }
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  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈstɑrt.l̩d/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
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    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-startled.ogg",
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      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "startle"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-04-05 from the simplewiktionary dump dated 2025-04-03 using wiktextract (8c1bb29 and fb63907). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.