wandering

American

[won-der-ing] / ˈwɒn dər ɪŋ /

adjective

moving from place to place without a fixed plan; roaming; rambling.

Crowds of wandering tourists crossed the square.
having no permanent residence; nomadic.

They were historically a wandering people, moving seasonally through the area.
meandering; winding.

They followed a wandering path down the mountain.

noun

an aimless roving about; leisurely traveling from place to place.

For our honeymoon we had a period of delightful wandering through Italy.
Usually wanderings.
1. aimless travels; meanderings.
  
  Her wanderings took her all over the world.
2. disordered thoughts or utterances; incoherencies.
  
  mental wanderings;
  the wanderings of delirium.
seemingly aimless or random movement from one place to another by a person with a mental or cognitive disability or impairment.

Wandering by Alzheimer’s patients is a problem in nursing homes.

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

Inflected Forms

Nouns

wanderings

plural

Etymology

Origin of wandering

First recorded before 1000; Middle English (noun, adjective), Old English wandrigende (adjective); see wander ( def. ), -ing ² ( def. ), -ing ¹ ( def. )

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:

wandering wanderings

The researchers also uncovered an intriguing connection between these wandering stars and dark matter.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 13, 2026

As the song played, people from neighboring studios, including hip-hop producers and other musicians, began wandering in.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 12, 2026

And, with the museum’s dim lighting, dated technology and underutilized areas, it can feel at times as if one is wandering in a past-its-prime shopping mall or in the forgotten corner of an airport terminal.

From Salon ● Sep. 25, 2026

After 01:00, Hugo is seen wandering the corridor on his own.

From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026

In his experience, wandering souls, while they did not know how to move forward, never seemed interested in going back.

From "The Undead Fox of Deadwood Forest" by Aubrey Hartman

Arranged in three sections based on his interests as an observer—plants, labor conditions and architecture—the show centers on his wanderings and the marvels that captivated him forever after.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 30, 2026

Evidence of these wanderings arrives in L.A. this fall.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 3, 2026

Lucas, 61, a musician from Bristol, travels to the Lake District in Cumbria for one week every month and regularly posts pictures of his wanderings.

From BBC ● Mar. 22, 2026

Inside this edition, Cranach's map presents the stations of the wilderness wanderings and the division of the Promised Land into twelve tribal regions.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 30, 2025

Because for my father, that was the day he began his wanderings in the valley of the shadow of death.

From "Moon Over Manifest" by Clare Vanderpool

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023