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nonplussed

UK/nɒnˈplʌst/US/ˌnɑnˈplʌst/
adjectiveC1Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #13,974 of 15,258neutral

Nonplussed means so surprised that you have no idea what to do next. Stopped in your tracks.

The word is currently splitting in two, and it is worth knowing why. The original meaning is bewildered, from a Latin phrase meaning no more can be said. In American English it has come to mean the opposite — unbothered, unfazed — probably because the non- looks like a negative. Careful writers avoid it altogether now, since half the readers will take it one way and half the other.

Definitions of nonplussed

  1. 1adjectivenonplussedSo surprised or confused that you do not know how to react.C1

    “He was completely nonplussed by the question.”

Where it comes from

Nonplussed is Latin for no further. Nōn plūs meant no more, and a nonplus was the point at which nothing else can be said or done, so the person is stopped rather than merely surprised.

  1. Proto-Indo-European

    *pleh₁- — to fill

  2. Latin

    nōn plūs — no further, no more

  3. English, today

    nonplussed

Built from

  • nonplus · English — state of bewilderment or perplexity
  • nōn · Latin — not
  • plūs · Latin — additionally, more; further

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Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practised in A Man Called Ove, A Song of Ice and Fire

First appears in chapter 29 of A Man Called Ove.

Practise this word

nonplussed in the wild

  • Though he stretched the demand to 2000 per year, Pressed Steel were "nonplussed" by the small demand.

    Bentley Mark VI

  • Governor Seymour, nonplussed by Cox's excuse, sent him and his troops to Tatla Lake to search for the warring members of the Tsilhqot'in.

    William George Cox

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.