different between awesome vs stunning

English

Etymology

From awe +? -some; compare Old English e?eful (“fearful; inspiring awe”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???s?m/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /??s.?m/
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /??s.?m/

Adjective

awesome (comparative more awesome or awesomer, superlative most awesome or awesomest)

1. (dated) Causing awe or terror; inspiring wonder or excitement. [from 1590–1600.]

   Synonyms: awe-inspiring; see also Thesaurus:awesome
2. (colloquial) Excellent, exciting, remarkable.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:excellent

Usage notes

The oldest meaning of awesome is of “something which inspires awe”, but the word is now also a common slang expression. It was originally so used in the United States, where it had featured strikingly in the 1970 film Tora! Tora! Tora!, as used by Japan's Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto to describe the "awesome" industrial potential of the United States. Consequently, as the word popularly became an expression for anything superb, in its original meaning it has tended to be replaced by the related word, awe-inspiring.

The comparative and superlative forms awesomer and awesomest are generally regarded as nonstandard.

Antonyms

• aweless

Derived terms

• awesome sauce (slang)
• awesomely
• awesomeness
• awesomenessness (nonce word, rare, nonstandard)
• awesometastic

Related terms

• awe-inspiring
• awful

Translations

Noun

awesome (uncountable)

1. (slang) Short for awesomeness: the quality, state, or essence of being awesome.

   Synonym: (slang) awesome sauce

   Antonyms: (slang) fail, (vulgar) shit, (slang) weaksauce

   • 2011, Gwen Hayes, Let Me Call You Sweetheart, Samhain Publishing, Ltd. (2011), ?ISBN, page 6:

     Plus, her patent leather boots were made of awesome. They made her legs look longer and leaner.

   • 2011, Kevin Seccia, Punching Tom Hanks: Dropkicking Gorillas and Pummeling Zombified Ex-Presidents—A Guide to Beating Up Anything, St. Martin's Press (2011), ?ISBN, page 189:

     Swayze, of course, is the being of pure awesome who has by now conquered all of Heaven.

   • 2013, Carrie Jones, Captivate, Bloomsbury (2010), ?ISBN, page 150:

     “Your grandmother,” he mumbles into my hair as we cuddle on the couch, “is made of awesome.”

Further reading

• awesome (disambiguation) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

English

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?n??

Etymology 1

From Middle English stunnyng, stunnynge, stounyng, equivalent to stun +? -ing.

Adjective

stunning (comparative more stunning, superlative most stunning)

1. Having an effect that stuns.

   The stunning jolt from the taser gun made the criminal stop fleeing.

2. (informal) Exceptionally beautiful or attractive.

   That woman is stunning!

3. (informal) Amazing; wonderfully good.

   The film was stunning.

Translations

Verb

stunning

1. present participle of stun

Etymology 2

From Middle English stunnyng, stonyng (also stoniynge, stonyynge), equivalent to stun +? -ing.

Noun

stunning (plural stunnings)

1. The act by which a person or animal is physically stunned.
   • 2009, Kevin J. Anderson, The Ashes of Worlds

     He wished he had tens of thousands more troops under Andez's control so he could round up every one of these demonstrators. But it was futile to continue cracking down. The stunnings, beatings and arrests had only inflamed them further.