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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

wonder.

A sense of awe, astonishment and curiosity, inspired by unexpected events, novel experiences and inexplicable circumstances, sometimes accompanied by surprise, shock or reverence.

6 characters2 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈwʌndə/Received-Pronunciation[ˈwʌ̹ndə]Received-Pronunciation/ˈwɐndə/Australia, New-Zealand[ˈwɐ̞ndə]Australia, New-Zealand
  1. A sense of awe, astonishment and curiosity, inspired by unexpected events, novel experiences and inexplicable circumstances, sometimes accompanied by surprise, shock or reverence.

    uncountable
  2. Something that causes amazement or awe; a marvel.

    countable
    Wonders of the World seem to come in sevens.
  3. Something that causes amazement or awe; a marvel. Fortunate circumstances.

    countable · uncountable
    That stay in the country did her wonders.
    It's a wonder no-one saw me.
  4. Something that causes amazement or awe; a marvel. An astonishing and seemingly inexplicable turn of events.

    countable · uncountable
    The idea was so ridiculous that it's a wonder anyone went along with it.
  5. Something that causes amazement or awe; a marvel. A feat that demonstrates incredible finesse or skill, as if performed by magic.

    countable · uncountable
    Given the limited resources, he's really performed wonders.
  6. Something that causes amazement or awe; a marvel. Someone very talented at something, a genius.

    countable · uncountable
    He's a wonder at cooking.
  7. Something that causes amazement or awe; a marvel. A nominalizer that serves as a head noun for the preceding adjective, which together form a mocking or insulting epithet.

    colloquial · countable · sarcastic · uncountable
    So the voiceless wonder speaks at last.
  8. A mental pondering, a thought.

    UK · countable · informal
  9. A kind of donut; a cruller.

    US · countable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English wonder, wunder, from Old English wundor (“wonder, miracle, marvel”), from Proto-West Germanic *wundr, from Proto-Germanic *wundrą. Cognate with Scots wunner (“wonder”), West Frisian wonder, wûnder (“wonder, miracle”), Dutch wonder (“miracle, wonder”), Low German wunner, wunder (“wonder”), German Wunder (“miracle, wonder”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish under (“wonder, miracle”), Faroese and Icelandic undur (“wonder”). The verb is from Middle English wondren, from Old English wundrian, which is from Proto-Germanic *wundrōną. Cognate with Saterland Frisian wunnerje, West Frisian wûnderje, Dutch wonderen, German Low German wunnern, German wundern, Swedish undra, Icelandic undra. Via PIE cognate with English wish (see more).

verb/ˈwʌndə/Received-Pronunciation[ˈwʌ̹ndə]Received-Pronunciation/ˈwɐndə/Australia, New-Zealand[ˈwɐ̞ndə]Australia, New-Zealand
  1. To be affected with surprise or admiration; to be struck with astonishment; to be amazed; to marvel; often followed by at.

    intransitive
    He's married by now, I shouldn't wonder.
  2. To ponder; to feel doubt and curiosity; to query in the mind.

    intransitive · transitive
    He wondered whether penguins could fly. She had wondered this herself sometimes.
    Has Jay gone fishing, I wonder?
Where this word comes from

From Middle English wonder, wunder, from Old English wundor (“wonder, miracle, marvel”), from Proto-West Germanic *wundr, from Proto-Germanic *wundrą. Cognate with Scots wunner (“wonder”), West Frisian wonder, wûnder (“wonder, miracle”), Dutch wonder (“miracle, wonder”), Low German wunner, wunder (“wonder”), German Wunder (“miracle, wonder”), Danish, Norwegian Bokmål, Norwegian Nynorsk, and Swedish under (“wonder, miracle”), Faroese and Icelandic undur (“wonder”). The verb is from Middle English wondren, from Old English wundrian, which is from Proto-Germanic *wundrōną. Cognate with Saterland Frisian wunnerje, West Frisian wûnderje, Dutch wonderen, German Low German wunnern, German wundern, Swedish undra, Icelandic undra. Via PIE cognate with English wish (see more).

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.