Mindboggling

Part of speech: adjective

Definitions

1. So astonishing or impressive that it is difficult to understand or believe
2. Describing something that is overwhelmingly surprising and challenges understanding
3. Characterizing an event or fact as remarkably puzzling and hard to grasp mentally

Etymology: "Boggling" comes from "boggle," a verb that began as a sense of shying away or hesitating, the way a startled horse balks at something in its path. Over time it came to mean being overwhelmed or dazed by something, which is the sense that gives today's adjective its punch. Combined with "mind," the result describes something so large or strange that the intellect seems to stumble over it. The compound "mindboggling" is simply "mind" plus the present participle "boggling," meaning "that causes the mind to boggle." It is a transparent, modern-style coinage built from ordinary English parts, so there is no hidden foreign ancestry to uncover, only the older verb doing its work. The spelling with a hyphen, "mind-boggling," is the more common form, and both are accepted. The unhyphenated version is the same word written as one.

Synonyms: astonishing, astounding, staggering, incredible, overwhelming

Antonyms: unimpressive, ordinary, mundane, commonplace, unremarkable