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What is the difference between sudden and abrupt?

sudden | abrupt |

Abrupt is a synonym of sudden.



In obsolete terms the difference between sudden and abrupt

is that sudden is an unexpected occurrence; a surprise while abrupt is broken off.

In poetic terms the difference between sudden and abrupt

is that sudden is suddenly while abrupt is something which is abrupt; an abyss.

As an adverb sudden

is suddenly.

As a verb abrupt is

to tear off or asunder.

sudden

English

Adjective

(en adjective)
  • Happening quickly and with little or no warning.
  • *, chapter=1
    • , title= Mr. Pratt's Patients, chapter=1 , passage=I stumbled along through the young pines and huckleberry bushes. Pretty soon I struck into a sort of path that, I cal'lated, might lead to the road I was hunting for. It twisted and turned, and, the first thing I knew, made a sudden bend around a bunch of bayberry scrub and opened out into a big clear space like a lawn.}}
  • (obsolete) Hastily prepared or employed; quick; rapid.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Never was such a sudden scholar made.
  • * Milton
    • the apples of Asphaltis, appearing goodly to the sudden eye
  • (obsolete) Hasty; violent; rash; precipitate.
  • * Shakespeare
    • I have no joy of this contract to-night: It is too rash, too unadvised, too sudden

    Antonyms

    * gradual * unsudden

    Derived terms

    * all of a sudden * sudden death * suddenly * suddenness * suddenwoven

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (poetic) Suddenly.
  • * Milton
    • Herbs of every leaf that sudden flowered.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) An unexpected occurrence; a surprise.

    • Derived terms

    * all of a sudden * all of the sudden * of a sudden

    Statistics

    *

    External links

    * * * English adjectives ending in -en 1000 English basic words

    abrupt

    English

    Adjective

    (en-adj)
  • (obsolete, rare) Broken away (from restraint).
  • Without notice to prepare the mind for the event; sudden; hasty; unceremonious.
    • The party came to an abrupt end when the parents of our host arrived.
  • * (rfdate) (William Shakespeare), Henry VI Part I, II-iii
    • The cause of your abrupt departure.
  • Curt in manner; brusque; rude; uncivil; impolite.
  • Having sudden transitions from one subject or state to another; unconnected; disjointed.
  • * (rfdate) (Ben Jonson)
    • The abrupt style, which hath many breaches.
  • (obsolete) Broken off.
  • Extremely steep or craggy as if broken up; precipitous.
  • * (rfdate) (Thomson)
    • Tumbling through ricks abrupt .
  • (botany) Suddenly terminating, as if cut off; truncate.
    • (Gray)

    Synonyms

    * (precipitous) broken, rough, rugged * (without time to prepare) brusque, sudden * (uncivil)blunt, brusque * (without transition) disconnected, unexpected

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (archaic) To tear off or asunder.
  • * (rfdate) Sir T. (Browne)
    • Till death abrupts them.
  • To interrupt suddenly.

    • Noun

    (en noun)
  • (poetic) Something which is ; an abyss.
  • * (rfdate) (Milton)
    • Over the vast abrupt .

    References

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