jolt — to shock or surprise someone suddenly
Part of speech: VERB
Definition: to shock or surprise someone suddenly
Pronunciation (IPA): /dʒoʊlt/
Example Sentences
- The caffeine gave me the jolt I needed to finish my homework.
- My phone's vibration jolted me so hard that I spilled coffee on my laptop.
- The roller coaster jolted us around like popcorn in a microwave.
jolt
VERB[/dʒoʊlt/]
to shock or surprise someone suddenly

The subway's sudden jolt sent coffee flying across the morning commuters.
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🎤Pronunciation
🌳Etymology
Origin
Jolt emerged in the 16th century as an onomatopoeia representing sudden, abrupt movement. The word mimics the sound and sensation of a quick, lightning-like motion, likely influenced by similar English exclamations and dialectal expressions of the period.
Breakdown
Jolt is a simple onomatopoetic root with no productive morphological components. The word itself functions as an atomic lexeme (jolt-) that directly represents the concept of sudden movement through its phonetic form.
🎵Rhyme
🔗Collocations
📝Examples
“The caffeine gave me the jolt I needed to finish my homework.”
“My phone's vibration jolted me so hard that I spilled coffee on my laptop.”
“The roller coaster jolted us around like popcorn in a microwave.”
“She jolted upright when she realized she had overslept.”
📚Related Words
Synonyms
Antonyms
Related
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