The phrase "a startling difference between" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when discussing a significant or surprising contrast between two or more subjects or ideas.
Example: "There is a startling difference between the two approaches to solving the problem, which could lead to vastly different outcomes."
Alternatives: "a striking contrast between" or "a significant disparity between".
LONDON — The new auction season opened this week with two sales that revealed a startling difference in mood between Chinese and Western buyers.
He did not make a startling difference, though neither did he look out of place.
"If you take Peyton Manning's stats before Jim Caldwell got there -- 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 -- and after Caldwell got there, it's a startling difference," he said.
It makes a startling difference, seeing a sculpture in three dimensions after you've gotten to know it in two -- especially when that sculpture tops a 450-foot mountain.
One startling difference between male and female brains is where they are found.
There is even a 50% chance, they say, that total retirement benefits for a person who is now young will be 25% higher under the Bush plan than they would be otherwise.What explains the startling difference between the boffins?
An insightful analysis by FairVote's Pauline Lejeune of the startling difference between winner-take-all rules and proportional voting rules through the lens of the recent German elections is instructive.
"The startling differences between those three cities had a great impact on me and led me to wonder: what have they done to get those huge buildings and big businesses?
Perhaps the most startling differences between the old measure and the new involves data the government has not yet published, showing 51 million people with incomes less than 50 percent above the poverty line.
There are startling differences between Twain's handwritten text and the original, 1885 edition of the novel, but perhaps the most startling occurs in Chapter 9: the manuscript contains a previously unknown episode, which was removed from the novel sometime before publication, and is published here for the first time.
