hitstun en · NOUN
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kh₂eyd-der. Proto-Indo-European *kh₂id-néh₂-ti Proto-Germanic *hittijaną Old Norse hittader. Old English hyttan Middle English hitten English hit English stun English hitstun From hit + stun.
Meanings
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(qualifier:fighting games, uncountable) A brief state after being hit by an attack during which a character is unable to move ("stunned").
Once Kasumi connects with the standing D, her opponent is unable to avoid the rest of the hits. Obviously this isn't true if you're in Armor Mode, since you never go into hitstun, but you get the idea.
1999 December 27, Chris MacDonald, “The King of Fighters '99 FAQ "Millenium Battle" FAQ v0.3”, in GameFAQs, archived from the original on 19 Feb 2019:My problem is that Vega has no real combo's that keep an enemy in hit-stun so they can't defend beyond the first hit.
1992 October 20, Steve Williams, “Vega combo's needed”, in alt.games.sf2 mailing list, via Google Groups, retrieved 07 Aug 2026:Hitstun—state a character enters when they are hit with an attack and did not block or guard.
2007, Adam Deats, Joe Epstein, Virtua Fighter 5 (Official Strategy Guide), BradyGames, →ISBN, page 3:[…] if the reflector connected with my opponent, I try to knock them offstage with an aerial attack while they’re still vulnerable to attack (“in hitstun”) from the reflector.
2020, Matt Knutson, Frame-Perfect: Temporalities in Competitive Gaming, University of California, Irvine, via ProQuest, retrieved 06 Aug 2026:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| hit-stun | alternative | lexicographic |