marvel
Americannoun
-
marvels
plural
-
something that causes wonder, admiration, or astonishment; a wonderful thing; a wonder or prodigy.
The new bridge is an engineering marvel.
-
Archaic. the feeling of wonder; astonishment.
verb (used with object)
-
marvels,
present (3rd person singular)
-
marveled,
past participle, past
-
marvelled,
past participle, past (especially British)
-
marveling,
present participle
-
marvelling
present participle (especially British)
-
to wonder at (usually followed by a clause as object).
I marvel that you were able to succeed against such odds.
-
to wonder or be curious about (usually followed by a clause as object).
A child marvels that the stars can be.
verb (used without object)
-
marvels,
present (3rd person singular)
-
marveled,
past participle, past
-
marvelled,
past participle, past (especially British)
-
marveling,
present participle
-
marvelling
present participle (especially British)
verb
noun
-
something that causes wonder
-
archaic astonishment
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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marvelsimple
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marvelssimple
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have marveledperfect
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have marvelledperfect
-
has marveledperfect
-
has marvelledperfect
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am marvelingprogressive
-
am marvellingprogressive
-
are marvelingprogressive
-
are marvellingprogressive
-
is marvelingprogressive
-
is marvellingprogressive
-
have been marvelingperfect progressive
-
have been marvellingperfect progressive
-
has been marvelingperfect progressive
-
has been marvellingperfect progressive
Past
-
marveledsimple
-
marvelledsimple
-
had marveledperfect
-
had marvelledperfect
-
was marvelingprogressive
-
was marvellingprogressive
-
were marvelingprogressive
-
were marvellingprogressive
-
had been marvelingperfect progressive
-
had been marvellingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of marvel
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English mervel, from Old French merveil(l)e, from Late Latin mīrābilia “marvels,” noun use of neuter plural of Latin mīrābilis “marvelous”; see admirable
Explanation
The Latin source of the word marvel is mirari, "to wonder at," and that's exactly what marvel means when it's a verb. You may marvel at the depth of the Grand Canyon or at the size of a piece of cake. When it entered the English language in 1300, marvel meant "miracle" –- that is, a supernatural act of divine agency (miracle actually comes from the same Latin word as marvel). By 1386, Geoffrey Chaucer was able to use the Middle English meruailles to describe more mundane astonishment. Chaucer also used marvel –- maruaylen, actually –- as a verb. In contemporary usage, the close synonym wonder is used much more often –- unless you happen to be a fan of the comic book universe created by Stan Lee. As a noun, anything that provokes wonder is a marvel.
Vocabulary lists containing marvel
Instead of "Said": Words for Upbeat Banter
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"The Crucible" -- Vocabulary from all 4 Acts
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"The Crucible" -- Vocabulary from Act 2
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The Ming dynasty floating-crab cup is a marvel to behold.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 6, 2026
But listening back now, it’s hard not to marvel at how timeless this timely track feels.
From Salon ● Aug. 3, 2026
Completed in 1902, the building was an architectural marvel with a pioneering steel-frame construction making it one of the city's first skyscrapers.
From BBC ● Jul. 26, 2026
But the solo move marked a milestone achievement for Laija García, who had no designs of becoming an international musical marvel.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 7, 2026
As soon as Siobhan was placed in the Paragon of Sound with a kindred marvel, Ella stood and clapped for her.
From "The Marvellers" by Dhonielle Clayton
Ripa marvels at the number of adults they meet who are named Hayley and Mateo.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 4, 2026
Extraordinary monolithic structures were to help bring forth new technological marvels not just for the Kingdom but for the world.
From BBC ● May 25, 2026
Had Brontë survived past 30, she might have worked yet-greater literary marvels, but as it is she left us with “Wuthering Heights,” a bravura work of melodrama published in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 22, 2026
Filmed on location in Sequoia National Park, “Wowsabout” follows live-action puppets Roxy, a hedgehog, and Ronald, a pig, as they go on a camping trip and learn about the marvels of nature.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 21, 2026
Dede marvels at Minerva’s facility in arranging everyone’s lives.
From "In the Time of the Butterflies" by Julia Alvarez
The scene marked a staggering shift for a man who, at the height of the pandemic, marveled at his own “unimaginable” fame.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 31, 2026
As I walked through downtown, I marveled at how the overwhelmingly Gen Z throngs expressed their mexicanidad.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 6, 2026
Touring a young United States in 1831, Alexis de Tocqueville marveled at Americans’ boundless appetite for commerce, industry and wealth.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 4, 2026
I marveled at how much courage it must take to turn your real life into art, just for the chance that one person might see it and be impacted by it.
From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2026
And as he cut himself adrift, both from them and simultaneously from that other world he had known before them, he marveled: What an awful thing the truth is, and how comforting is a lie.
From "The Best of Enemies" by Osha Gray Davidson
And in May 2025 Trump sounded more than a little envious of his Arab hosts as he praised the marble of Qatar's royal palace as "perfecto" and marvelled at Saudi Arabia's architecture.
From Barron's ● Jul. 7, 2026
"I can make out all the letters of the alphabet, even the smallest ones," he marvelled, pointing to his phone screen.
From Barron's ● May 27, 2026
Maher, a crochety liberal-leaning comic who has grown more crochety and less liberal as societal norms have passed him by, marvelled at the fact that he could make the commander-in-chief laugh.
From Salon ● Apr. 22, 2025
Delegates who accompanied the UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves to China earlier this month marvelled at how the Beijing air had been cleaned up, and indigenous electric cars were everywhere.
From BBC ● Jan. 28, 2025
Between equations, they marvelled that their tests would be scored to the whole point, instead of to five decimal places.
From "Typical American" by Gish Jen
Beyond marveling over these kingdoms, we can learn a lot more from them than we might expect.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
I’ve returned, spending time with friends, exploring neighborhoods, enjoying the parks and marveling at the lakes that seem to appear around every corner.
From Salon ● Jun. 11, 2026
“To have someone like Michael Mayer say, ‘Come play this Russian chess master,’ because there’s something in me that he believed in, that is so cool,” he said, still marveling at his good fortune.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2026
We looked at maps, got advice on where to go next and ate our sack lunches at a picnic table, marveling at those green slopes.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 10, 2026
And us as well, thought Theon, marveling at her folly.
From "A Dance with Dragons" by George R. R. Martin
Passengers tend to spend the first few minutes of the ride "marvelling, videoing the steering wheel moving on its own, taking selfies", Fischer said.
From Barron's ● Jun. 24, 2026
Australian tourist Olivia Martell-Groves went all in for the seasonal experience, and donned a flower-printed kimono while marvelling at the flowers.
From Barron's ● Mar. 30, 2026
His own style, which is to say his mind, was compulsively metaphorical, gorgeously maximal, enough so to make him worry about “an implicit marvelling at myself as expressor.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 10, 2025
The event's founder, Sir Brendan Foster, said he had "spent ages marvelling" at the 2025 designs and "never spotted the mistake", even when they were displayed in the window of city centre department store Fenwick.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2025
Mr Charles remembered marvelling at how my father showed not one hint of discomfort or anger, but continued to drive with an expression balanced perfectly between personal dignity and readiness to oblige.
From "The Remains of the Day" by Kazuo Ishiguro
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
