wowed

Wowed is the past tense and past participle of the verb wow, meaning to astonish, amaze, or impress greatly. It is used both transitively and in passive constructions: for example, The magician wowed the audience, or The audience was wowed by the performance. Wowed is common in casual speech and in journalism, marketing, and entertainment writing, where strong impressions are described succinctly.

The verb wow originated as an exclamation of surprise or admiration, an onomatopoeic imitation of a loud, astonished reaction. The sense “to impress greatly” developed in American English in the mid-20th century and has since entered general usage. The noun wow and the related expression wow factor are widely used in contemporary English.

Usage notes: Wowed is informal; in more formal or academic writing one might prefer verbs such as impressed, astonished, or delighted. The present tense of wow is wows (The performance wows the audience). The past participle, wowed, is used in perfect constructions (We have wowed the crowd) as well as in passive forms (The audience was wowed). The participle can also appear in adjective phrases, as in a wowed crowd or a wowed listener, to describe people who have been impressed.

See also: wow (exclamation), wow factor, impressed, astonished.