element of surprise
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
An unexpected event or action that catches someone off guard
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
một sự kiện hoặc hành động bất ngờ khiến ai đó bị bắt gặp
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: a part of being surprised
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Examples
The element of surprise helped the team win the game
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “element of surprise” mean?
An unexpected event or action that catches someone off guard Literally: a part of being surprised
Is “element of surprise” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.