wonder means A sense of awe, astonishment and curiosity, inspired by unexpected events, novel experiences and inexplicable circumstances, sometimes accompanied by surprise, shock or reverence. It carries an Arena rating of 2046, earned across 29 head-to-head judged battles.
Among words judged in Lexicurio's Arena, wonder ranks #18 of 17,134 for Most Malleable Words, #432 of 17,130 for Most Beautiful Words, #1,849 of 17,127 for Words That Escaped Their Books, #2,005 of 17,124 for Most Sublime Words.
wonder is pronounced /ˈwʌndə/.
Why “wonder” is a great word
Wonder is the feeling of awe and astonishment at the profoundly new or beautiful, or the thing which provokes that feeling; to marvel, doubt, or speculate with open curiosity. From Middle English wonder (noun) and wondren (verb), from Old English wundor ("wonder, miracle, marvel") and wundrian ("to be astonished"), from Proto-Germanic *wundrą ("wonder") and *wundrōną ("to wonder"). Unlike “marvel,” which fixes upon the objective extraordinariness of the thing itself, or “ponder,” which demands careful, rational deliberation, wonder is the subjective trembling of the mind before what it cannot fully grasp. It is the child’s wide eyes fixed on a dandelion seed-head, the traveler’s arrested breath before a foreign sea, and the silent, nightly contemplation of an indigo sky strewn with stars—the mind not solving, but standing open, ajar, in the warm draft of the unknown.
Etymology
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).
noun
- A sense of awe, astonishment and curiosity, inspired by unexpected events, novel experiences and inexplicable circumstances, sometimes accompanied by surprise, shock or reverence.
- Something that causes amazement or awe; a marvel.e.g.“Wonders of the World seem to come in sevens.”
- Something that causes amazement or awe; a marvel.; Fortunate circumstances.e.g.“That stay in the country did her wonders.”
- Something that causes amazement or awe; a marvel.; An astonishing and seemingly inexplicable turn of events.e.g.“The idea was so ridiculous that it's a wonder anyone went along with it.”
- Something that causes amazement or awe; a marvel.; A feat that demonstrates incredible finesse or skill, as if performed by magic.e.g.“Given the limited resources, he's really performed wonders.”
- Something that causes amazement or awe; a marvel.; Someone very talented at something, a genius.e.g.“He's a wonder at cooking.”
- 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.e.g.“So the voiceless wonder speaks at last.”
- A mental pondering, a thought.e.g.“Miss Paynter had a little wonder as to whether the man, as she called Mr. Lacy in her own mind, had ever been admitted to this room. She thought not.” — 1934, Katharine Tynan, The house of dreams:
- A kind of donut; a cruller.
- Any of the Wonders of the World.
verb
- To be affected with surprise or admiration; to be struck with astonishment; to be amazed; to marvel; often followed by at.e.g.“He's married by now, I shouldn't wonder.”
- To ponder; to feel doubt and curiosity; to query in the mind.e.g.“He wondered whether penguins could fly. She had wondered this herself sometimes.”
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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