What's the difference between alarm and surprise?

Alarm


Definition:

  • (n.) A summons to arms, as on the approach of an enemy.
  • (n.) Any sound or information intended to give notice of approaching danger; a warning sound to arouse attention; a warning of danger.
  • (n.) A sudden attack; disturbance; broil.
  • (n.) Sudden surprise with fear or terror excited by apprehension of danger; in the military use, commonly, sudden apprehension of being attacked by surprise.
  • (n.) A mechanical contrivance for awaking persons from sleep, or rousing their attention; an alarum.
  • (v. t.) To call to arms for defense; to give notice to (any one) of approaching danger; to rouse to vigilance and action; to put on the alert.
  • (v. t.) To keep in excitement; to disturb.
  • (v. t.) To surprise with apprehension of danger; to fill with anxiety in regard to threatening evil; to excite with sudden fear.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) More evil than Clocky , the alarm clock that rolls away when you reach out to silence it, or the Puzzle Alarm , which makes you complete a simple puzzle before it'll go quiet, the Money Shredding Alarm Clock methodically destroys your cash unless you rouse yourself.
  • (2) Which must make yesterday's jobs figures doubly alarming for the coalition.
  • (3) Luciana Berger, Labour shadow secretary for mental health, also expressed alarm.
  • (4) The Cambridge-based couple felt ignored when tried to raise the alarm about the way their business – publisher Zenith – was treated by Lynden Scourfield, the former HBOS banker jailed last week, and David Mills’ Quayside Corporate Services.
  • (5) Not only was an alarming amount of fissile material going missing at the company, Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation (Numec), but it had been visited by a veritable who's-who of Israeli intelligence, including Rafael Eitan, described by the firm as an Israeli defence ministry "chemist", but, in fact, a top Mossad operative who went on to head Lakam.
  • (6) Talking ahead of a UN climate summit in Peru next month, Kim said he was alarmed by World Bank-commissioned research from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany, which said that as a result of past greenhouse gas emissions the world is condemned to unprecedented weather events.
  • (7) The most egregious failure was by WHO in the delay in sounding the alarm,” said Prof Ashish Jha, the director of the Harvard Global Health Institute.
  • (8) "We are alarmed to see the government is even wavering about continuing its programme of tracing, testing and destroying infected young ash trees.
  • (9) Privacy advocates argue this reflects an alarming ease of access, even though agencies should make every effort to ensure the invasion of privacy is justified by the importance to the public of solving a crime or recovering money.
  • (10) There was no looking back and as Hardouvelis nervously looked on – at times relieved, at times alarmed – it was quite clear that there was no stepping back either.
  • (11) Suffice to say, it was a long, difficult haul with various scares and alarms along the way.
  • (12) Severe overloading can increase microdamage alarmingly, its repair by BMUs too, and can cause woven bone formation, anarchic resorption and a regional acceleratory phenomenon.
  • (13) The literature on the possible risk of myasthenia gravis complicating pregnancy and delivery is sparse and partly contradictory but some of the reports on the number of perinatal and neonatal deaths are alarming.
  • (14) The second cause for alarm is more real – the insistence on imposing exemplary, or punitive, damages on those who don't join the regulator (and, in some circumstances, even those who do).
  • (15) The stimulus-response combination was classified into 4 categories according to SDT response: hits, misses, false alarms (FAs) and correct rejections (CRs).
  • (16) The interval distributions of neurons in isolated cerebral cortex resembled those of neurons in the intact cortex of an alarmed animal.
  • (17) The clinicians were asked to choose from a list the device that produced the alarm.
  • (18) On Monday, the interior minister, Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong, said the alarm had been raised immediately, but local media have cited prison sources saying it took half an hour for police to begin the search for Guzmán.
  • (19) The bank's speciality in debt instruments such as mortgage-related securities caused alarm as early as last summer.
  • (20) in the US the last ten years have witnessed an alarming recrudescence involving vast strata of the population and especially children, although this is masked by the paucity of reports, as is the case also in Italy.

Surprise


Definition:

  • (n.) The act of coming upon, or taking, unawares; the act of seizing unexpectedly; surprisal; as, the fort was taken by surprise.
  • (n.) The state of being surprised, or taken unawares, by some act or event which could not reasonably be foreseen; emotion excited by what is sudden and strange; a suddenly excited feeling of wonder or astonishment.
  • (n.) Anything that causes such a state or emotion.
  • (n.) A dish covered with a crust of raised paste, but with no other contents.
  • (n.) To come or fall suddenly and unexpectedly; to take unawares; to seize or capture by unexpected attack.
  • (n.) To strike with wonder, astonishment, or confusion, by something sudden, unexpected, or remarkable; to confound; as, his conduct surprised me.
  • (n.) To lead (one) to do suddenly and without forethought; to bring (one) into some unexpected state; -- with into; as, to be surprised into an indiscretion; to be surprised into generosity.
  • (n.) To hold possession of; to hold.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) If Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough, who bought the island in 1738, were to return today he would doubtless recognise the scene, though he might be surprised that his small private buildings have grown into a sizable hotel.
  • (2) Surprisingly, the clonal elimination of V beta 6+ cells is preceded by marked expansion of these cells.
  • (3) Given Australia’s number one position as the worst carbon emitter per capita among major western nations it seems hardly surprising that islanders from Fiji, Samoa, Vanuatu and other small island developing states have been turning to Australia with growing exasperation demanding the country demonstrate an appropriate response and responsibility.
  • (4) S&P – the only one of the three major agencies not to have stripped the UK of its coveted AAA status – said it had been surprised at the pick-up in activity during 2013 – a year that began with fears of a triple-dip recession.
  • (5) Why is it so surprising to people that a boy like Chol, just out of conflict, has thought through the needs of his country in such a detailed way?” While Beah’s zeal is laudable, the situation in South Sudan is dire .
  • (6) Diabetic retinopathy (an index of microangiopathy) and absence of peripheral pulses, amputation, or history of myocardial infarction, stroke, or transient ischemic attacks (as evidence of macroangiopathy) caused surprisingly little increase in relative risk for cardiovascular death.
  • (7) Just don’t be surprised if they ask you to repair their phones, too.
  • (8) One surprising finding is that the MAL1g-encoded maltose permease exhibits little sequence homology to the MAL1-encoded maltose permease though they appear to be functionally homologous.
  • (9) Surprisingly, however, despite the severe defect in viral DNA replication, the synthesis of a few species of viral late proteins continues in cells infected by some of the E1B mutants.
  • (10) Thus, during treatment with ethambutol visually (pattern) evoked potentials may reveal a surprisingly high percentage of subclinical optic neuritis.
  • (11) Somewhat surprisingly then, in view of the mechanisms in mammals, birds do not seem to use this seasonal message in the photoperiodic control of reproduction.
  • (12) Infants were habituated to models posing either prototypically positive displays (e.g., happy expressions) or positive expression blends (e.g., mock surprise).
  • (13) The BBA statistics director, David Dooks, said: "It was no surprise to see the January mortgage figures falling back from December, when transactions were being pushed through to beat the end of stamp duty relief.
  • (14) "We knew people would be interested in the announcement, but it's fair to say that the scale of the excitement, right across the world, took us all by surprise.
  • (15) When you have champions of financial rectitude such as the International Monetary Fund and OECD warning of the international risk of an "explosion of social unrest" and arguing for a new fiscal stimulus if growth continues to falter, it's hardly surprising that tensions in the cabinet over next month's spending review are spilling over.
  • (16) Myelodysplastic preleukemic syndromes (MDPS) and acute promyelocytic leukemia (APL) share a surprising in vivo sensitivity to the hormonally acting 13 cis or all trans retinoic acids (transRA).
  • (17) Apple has come out fighting, which is no surprise given the remarkable success that the company has seen in recent years.
  • (18) His words surprised some because of an impression that the US was unwilling to talk about these issues.
  • (19) A teaching union has questioned appointment of a trustee of Britain's largest academy chain group as chairman of the schools regulator Ofsted , in what was a surprise announcement meant to calm some of the internal conflicts within the coalition.
  • (20) Given that a post-poll economy still registers as a crucial issue among undecided voters, and that matters economic are now his BBC day job, that was hardly surprising.