Senses
1. suddenly, in an instant — Adverb expressing sudden, unexpected occurrence. All four clusters denote the same concept with prepositional variation (b-/l-). Multilingual glosses are unanimous: Spanish 'de repente / súbitamente / en un instante' (suddenly), Arabic فَجأَةً / بَغْتَةً (suddenly), Korean 갑자기 / 순간 / 순식간에 (suddenly / in a moment / in an instant), Hindi अचानक / झट से / एकाएक (suddenly / quickly / all at once), Swahili ghafla / mara moja (suddenly / at once). No genuine semantic distinction exists between these clusters. 7×
AR["بَغْتَةً","بِ-غَتْأَةٍ","بِفَجْأَةٍ","فَجأَةً","فَجْأَةً"]·ben["ক্ষণে-","ব-হঠাৎ","হঠাৎ"]·DE["[לפתע]","[פתע]","in-suddenness","mit-suddenness"]·EN["in-a-moment","in-an-instant","in-suddenness","suddenly","with-suddenness"]·FR["[לפתע]","avec-suddenness","dans-suddenness","soudainement","פתע"]·heb["ב-פתע","ל-פתע","פתע"]·HI["अचानक","एकाएक","झट-से","में-अचानक","से-अचानक"]·ID["dengan-sekejap","dengan-tiba-tiba","secara-mendadak","tiba-tiba"]·IT["[לפתע]","[פתע]","con-suddenness","in-suddenness","in-un-moment","suddenly"]·jav["dumadakan","ing-sakedhap","ing-sekedhap","mawi-dumadakan"]·KO["갑자기","순간","에-갑자기","에-순식간에"]·PT["de-repente","em-repente","subitamente"]·RU["в-внезапности","внезапно","мгновенно"]·ES["de-repente","en-repentino","en-un-instante","súbitamente"]·SW["Bpta","ghafla","kwa-ghafla","mara-moja"]·TR["-da-aniden","aniden","aniden-","birden"]·urd["اچانک","جلدی","سے-اچانک","فوراً"]
BDB / Lexicon Reference
† פֶּ֫תַע subst. suddenness (√ unknown: cf. Assyrian ina pitti, ina pittimma, in suddenness, instantly, DlHWB 553):—Nu 35:22 וְאִם־בְּפֶתַע … הֲדָפוֹ if he have thrust him in suddenness, before he is aware what he has done (i.e. accidentally); + פִּתְאֹם Nu 6:9, וכי ימות מת עליו בפתע פתאם i.e. very suddenly; לְפֶתַע according to (לְ, p. 516b) suddenness, Is 29:5 והיה לפתע פתאם = at an instant,…