wonderful

English

Alternative forms

• wonderfool (eye dialect)
• woonderful (eye dialect)
• wonderfull (archaic)
• wondreful (obsolete)
• wondrefull (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English, from Old English wundorful (“wonderful”), equivalent to wonder +‎ -ful. Cognate Dutch wondervol (“wonderful”), German wundervoll (“wonderful”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /ˈwʌn.də(ɹ).fl̩/, SAMPA: /"wVn.d@(r).fl=/
• (US) IPA: /ˈwʌn.dɚ.fl̩/, SAMPA: /"WVn.d@`.fl=/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

Adjective

wonderful (comparative wonderfuller or more wonderful, superlative wonderfullest or most wonderful)

1. (now rare) Tending to excite wonder; surprising, extraordinary.
   • 1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial 2007, p. 278:

     He is massively corrupt. It is wonderful how the man's popularity survives.

2. Surprisingly excellent; very good or admirable, extremely impressive.

   They served a wonderful six-course meal.

Synonyms

• (excellent, extremely impressive): great, amazing, astonishing, incredible, marvelous, fantastic, frabjous
• See also Wikisaurus:wonderful
• See also Wikisaurus:excellent

Antonyms

• (excellent, extremely impressive): terrible, horrible

Translations

excellent, extremely impressive

Arabic: عجيب (ar) (3ajiib) f. Armenian: հրաշալի (hy) (hrašali) Chinese: Mandarin: 奇妙 (cmn) (qímiào), 太好了 (tài hǎo le) Dutch: fantastisch (nl), heerlijk (nl) Dyirbal: mali Esperanto: mirinda (eo) Finnish: hieno (fi), mainio (fi), loistava (fi), ihana (fi) French: merveilleux (fr) German: wunderbar (de) Greek: θαυμάσιος (el) (thavmásios), εκπληκτικός (el) (ekpliktikós) m., υπέροχος (el) (ypérochos) m., έξοχος (el) (éxochos) m. Hungarian: csodálatos  (hu) Interlingua: meraviliose (ia) Irish: iontach (ga) Italian: meraviglioso (it) Japanese: 素晴しい (すばらしい, subarashii) Korean: 놀라운 (nollaun)

Latin: mirabilis (la), mirus (la) m., mira (la) f., mirum (la) n. Latvian: brīnišķīgs Luxembourgish: wonnerbar (lb) Norwegian: underfull (no) Bokmål: vidunderlig (no) Nynorsk: vidunderleg (nn) Old English: wundorlic (ang) Persian: شگفت (fa) (šegaft), شگرف (fa) (šegarf) Polish: cudowny (pl), zdumiewający (pl), zadziwiający (pl) Portuguese: maravilhoso (pt) m., maravilhosa (pt) f. Russian: замечательный (ru) (zamečátel’nyj), чудесный (ru) (čudésnyj), восхитительный (ru) (vosxitítel’nyj) Scottish Gaelic: mìorbhaileach (gd) Serbian: čudesan (sr) m. Spanish: maravilloso (es) Swedish: underbar (sv) Turkish: harika (tr)

Related terms

• wonder
• wonderfully
• wonderland
• wonderment
• wondrous

Statistics

• Most common English words before 1923: official · loss · spot · #942: wonderful · shook · fit · distribute

Anagrams

• underflow