• IPA: /ˈsʌdən/, [ˈsʌdn̩]

sudden

1. Happening quickly and with little or no warning.

   The sudden drop in temperature left everyone cold and confused.

2. (obsolete) Hastily prepared or employed; quick; rapid.
3. (obsolete) Hasty; violent; rash; precipitate.

• (happening quickly) abrupt, precipitous, subitaneous; see also Thesaurus:sudden
• (hasty, rash) hotheaded, impetuous, impulsive; see also Thesaurus:reckless

• (happening quickly) gradual; see also Thesaurus:gradual
• (all) unsudden

• French: soudain, soudaine, subit
• German: plötzlich, jäh
• Italian: improvviso, improvvisa
• Portuguese: repentino, repentina, súbito
• Russian: неожи́данный
• Spanish: repentino, súbito

sudden

1. (poetic) Suddenly.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book 7”, in Paradise Lost. A Poem Written in Ten Books, London: Printed [by Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […] [a]nd by Robert Boulter […] [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], OCLC 228722708 ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: The Text Exactly Reproduced from the First Edition of 1667: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, OCLC 230729554 ↗:

     Herbs of every leaf that sudden flowered.

sudden (plural suddens)

1. (obsolete) An unexpected occurrence; a surprise.