When you see your
mom come back from the salon with bright green spiky hair and your jaw drops to the floor in total shock, you’re flabbergasted. You are really, really shocked — pretty much speechless.
Use the adjective flabbergasted to describe someone who's astounded or surprised for any reason, good or
bad. You could be flabbergasted at how astonishingly expensive a parking ticket is, or at how incredibly delicious pineapple
pizza is. Flabbergasted has been used since the
late 18th century, but no
one knows for sure where it originated. The word sounds like what it means: when you say it out
loud — "flabbergasted!" — it somehow captures the spirit of astonishment and shock.