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/, X-SAMPA: /"wVn.d@(r).fl=/
• (US) IPA: /ˈwʌn.dɚ.fl̩/, X-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.

   • 2012 April 29, Nathan Rabin, “TV: Review: THE SIMPSONS (CLASSIC): “Treehouse of Horror III” (season 4, episode 5; originally aired 10/29/1992)”:

     Though they obviously realized that these episodes were part of something wonderful and important and lasting, the writers and producers couldn’t have imagined that 20 years later “Treehouse Of Horror” wouldn’t just survive; it’d thrive as one of the most talked-about and watched episodes of every season of The Simpsons.

Synonyms

• (excellent, extremely impressive): great, amazing, astonishing, incredible, marvelous, fantastic, frabjous, mint
• 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)

• Czech: skvělý (cs), báječný (cs)
• Danish: vidunderlig (da) c
• 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), wundervoll (de)
• Greek: θαυμάσιος (el) (thavmásios), εκπληκτικός (el) (ekpliktikós) m, υπέροχος (el) (ypérochos) m, έξοχος (el) (éxochos) m
• Hungarian: csodálatos (hu)
• Icelandic: yndislegur (is) m, dásamlegur (is) m, undursamlegur (is) m
• Interlingua: meraviliose (ia)
• Irish: iontach (ga)
• Italian: meraviglioso (it)
• Japanese: 素晴しい (すばらしい, subarashii)

• Jèrriais: mangnifique m and f
• 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)
• Old Saxon: wundarlik
• 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)
• Serbo-Croatian: čudesan (sh) 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