of a sudden

1. 1.

   happening unexpectedly

   “suddenly she felt a sharp pain in her side”

   Synonymssuddenlyall of a sudden

Questions about of a sudden

What does of a sudden mean?

of a sudden means "happening unexpectedly".

What is another word for of a sudden?

Close synonyms include suddenly, all of a sudden. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is of a sudden a common word?

of a sudden is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.