adjective
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a surprising/startling conclusion
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After years of research, he reached a startling conclusion.
a surprising/unexpected discovery
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Their work led to some surprising discoveries.
hardly surprising
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It’s hardly surprising that she won’t answer his calls after the way he’s treated her.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
altogether
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The reductivist enterprise thus inevitably comes to grief, and it is not altogether surprising that it does.
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The absence of reference to a division of the southern province, therefore, is not altogether surprising .
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Russell's findings are not altogether surprising .
hardly
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Huh, it's hardly surprising .
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The overall tone is warm and woody - hardly surprising when you consider the sheer mass of wood involved!
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It is hardly surprising that many children eventually acquire a similar attitude towards the relevance of mathematics.
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Orderic's attitude is hardly surprising .
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It is hardly surprising , therefore, that many women returners are confused about what kind of job to look for.
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If we think about it this is hardly surprising .
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This is hardly surprising since these styles are not fixed and intractable.
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It was too much like being in the Army - which, on reflection, was hardly surprising .
more
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It is more surprising that Bourgchier accepted the role of go-between.
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But more surprising than his lack of academic prowess was his failure to make any other sort of impact.
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A second and rather more surprising method of managed information-flows is know how trading.
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It is a bit more surprising , however, when that dealer disappears without a trace.
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Even more surprising is Glenny's attempt to fudge the fundamental issues of the Balkan conflict.
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Even more surprising there are no stars: a deficiency which today usually condemns a climb to total obscurity.
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Hufton notes more surprising instances of widows continuing in their husbands' occupation as gaolers.
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What was more surprising was that he brought a wife with him.
most
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Many found her consistent equilibrium the most surprising of her many qualities.
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Her black and white study of proud Paul holding Mary is the most surprising .
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But the most surprising fact about this is that all these events took place during the deposition of a single graptolite zone.
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Apart from that, life had taught her to pry because sometimes doing so turned up the most surprising things.
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To judge from this book, the most surprising thing about the paper is that it did not collapse long ago.
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Perhaps most surprising was the high percentage - 73% - who came to discuss subject work with the librarian.
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But there are new Giants, perhaps the most surprising of them being Joanna Trollope.
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In an obvious sense, this is a most surprising justification.
perhaps
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If so, it is perhaps surprising that a threat of a mere breach of contract should give rise to liability.
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It is perhaps surprising , therefore, that ascorbic acid, a known reducing agent, can precipitate haemolysis.
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It is perhaps surprising that circulating concentrations of both peptides rise within 15 minutes after eating.
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It is not perhaps surprising that the source of substitution should have come from the traditional opposition group, the Bani Hashem.
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In this environment it is perhaps surprising that the early factories should have received such hostile criticism.
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Its clear narrative thrust is appropriate for the subject, though perhaps surprising in a novel by a poet.
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None the less it is perhaps surprising that the librarian has not crossed swords with the law over obscene and indecent literature before now.
rather
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Daedalus finds all this rather surprising , for water is an extremely bad lubricant.
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This has a rather surprising implication.
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Secondly, the deciduous woodland that eventually takes over has a rather surprising composition.
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Actually, it is rather surprising that the labour cost hasn't gone up more, especially in view of the national rates.
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Nabokov was wrong - rather surprising , this - about the phonetics of the name Lolita.
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What he discovered was rather surprising .
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And she was Rabelaisian, rather surprising , liberated fun.
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Since the management is accountable and is producing the information, it would be rather surprising if it were otherwise.
really
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The crew seemed happy, which was not really surprising .
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It is not really surprising that animal diseases are increasing when we consider the Government's deliberate run-down of their veterinary service.
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But the really surprising thing about the research is how similar the two sets of readers are in their tastes.
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It is really surprising the number of obscure groups who will get together for a celebration.
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So it wasn't really surprising that we didn't recognise Ollie when we got into the arrivals hall.
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But it's not really surprising that this accommodation should come to pass.
scarcely
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Since the principal function of grammar is to indicate how units of meaning are to be combined, this is scarcely surprising .
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Such a preference is scarcely surprising but may be difficult to accommodate in specially designated homes and hostels.
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Which, given the way Wally rambles on, is scarcely surprising .
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It is scarcely surprising that popes did not like calling Councils.
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It is scarcely surprising that opt-out schools are apprehensive.
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Given that people had no rational basis for choosing among candidates, it was scarcely surprising they used one they deemed natural.
so
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That, in a dream, wasn't so surprising .
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But perhaps it was not so surprising .
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Considering the size of their natural prey - small mice and birds - this is not so surprising .
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But the fact that so few rooms stand out in my memory is not so surprising .
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They claim it can relieve migraine and sinusitis and not so surprising , remove ear wax.
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Perhaps, then, it wasn't so surprising that Lorne had one or two funny ideas about himself.
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Constantine's position was not so surprising in an essentially pagan potentate of warlike disposition.
somewhat
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He had in fact conducted it with a somewhat surprising degree of determination.
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While at University Glass's musical taste was somewhat surprising .
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This is somewhat surprising given primate evidence that the colliculus receives substantial uncrossed input.
very
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This is not very surprising when we consider that most joint ventures appear not to be entirely voluntary.
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That Elizabeth Woodville submitted is therefore perhaps not very surprising .
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None of this is very surprising , actually.
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Given that not all subjects knew the junctions well previously this is not very surprising .
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They are very surprising and daring.
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Some of their early findings are very surprising .
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Of course, he never saw anything very surprising - until that afternoon.
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Not that it's so very surprising .
■ NOUN
amount
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Focused effort and determination can yield a surprising amount of information but the motivation has to he high.
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The Jam and Lewis soundtrack powers up some fairly physical action sequences, and there is a surprising amount of killings.
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Berlin has a surprising amount of open space including the beautiful Grunewald Forest.
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Most will provide an adequate fountain, but a surprising amount of water is required to operate a satisfactory waterfall.
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In the acoustic shop, a surprising amount of work is carried out by hand.
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Of course they were package tours though he seems to have spent a surprising amount on this one.
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A surprising amount of work to be found in the island does, however, show their influence.
number
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There is a surprising number of medieval houses still standing, sometimes quite unexpectedly awaiting discovery.
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A surprising number of systems have neither of these.
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This has a surprising number of advantages, beyond the obvious saving of paper, though there are disadvantages too.
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I was invited to open functions in various parts of the Yorkshire Dales and quite a surprising number of people turned up.
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For a horse who has a fairly relaxed outlook on life, Milton has a surprising number of phobias.
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On close investigation, we often find a surprising number of elements in different subject courses that interrelate.
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Bedyngham's music survives in a surprising number of different manuscripts, especially his secular songs.
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The distinctive area of the single television play has produced a surprising number of allusions to homosexuality.
result
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The changing distributions between 1970 and 1980 on this index have been calculated for over 100 countries, with some surprising results .
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Matrix isolation has given some surprising results in the study of vapours from molten salts.
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Amongst the YCs, the lack of suitable volunteers can lead to surprising results .
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It is the species in which this curious behaviour has been studied most thoroughly, with some surprising results .
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This interesting and surprising result awaits replication.
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Sometimes, though, the outcome of the advertisers' work has surprising results .
thing
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But he has found at least one surprising thing .
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Apart from that, life had taught her to pry because sometimes doing so turned up the most surprising things .
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To judge from this book, the most surprising thing about the paper is that it did not collapse long ago.
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The only surprising thing was that it was all less irksome than he had imagined.
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Wickham's initial feeling was that if it were true the only surprising thing was that Barron had not flown away sooner.
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The surprising thing is that he published this anonymously.
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The only surprising thing about the Life was the scale of its failure.
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As with labour costs, the surprising thing is that the total overheads haven't increased by more.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
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A surprising number of teenagers leave school without being able to read and write.
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In such a small town it was surprising to find so many really good restaurants.
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Liddy really didn't want to change school, but it was surprising how quickly she got used to the new one.
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Some of the conclusions in the report were quite surprising .
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There are a surprising number of taxis for such a small city.
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Wasn't it surprising that so few people came to the party?
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
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And it was surprising how frequently they found it necessary to motor down to Edmonton or Calgary.
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Even more surprising there are no stars: a deficiency which today usually condemns a climb to total obscurity.
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It is a particularly surprising conclusion for so reductionist a subject as physics.
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It wasn't surprising that her path and Guido's hadn't crossed.
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This is surprising in view of the fact that over a longer term measurements can vary by much more than this.
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Whether it also explains the equally surprising surge in menswear demand is less clear.
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Which, given the way Wally rambles on, is scarcely surprising .