wander
Americanverb (used without object)
-
wanders,
present (3rd person singular)
-
wandered,
past participle, past
-
wandering
present participle
-
to ramble without a definite purpose or objective; roam, rove, or stray.
to wander over the earth.
-
to go aimlessly, indirectly, or casually; meander.
The river wanders among the rocks.
- Synonyms:
- saunter
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to extend in an irregular course or direction.
Foothills wandered off to the south.
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to move, pass, or turn idly, as the hand or the eyes.
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(of the mind, thoughts, desires, etc.) to take one direction or another without conscious intent or control.
His attention wandered as the speaker droned on.
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to stray from a path, place, companions, etc..
During the storm the ship wandered from its course.
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to deviate in conduct, belief, etc.; err; go astray.
Let me not wander from Thy Commandments.
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to think or speak confusedly or incoherently.
-
(of a person with a mental disorder or cognitive impairment) to move about or walk in a seemingly aimless or random manner.
verb (used with object)
-
wanders,
present (3rd person singular)
-
wandered,
past participle, past
-
wandering
present participle
noun
-
wanders
plural
verb
-
(also tr) to move or travel about, in, or through (a place) without any definite purpose or destination
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to proceed in an irregular course; meander
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to go astray, as from a path or course
-
(of the mind, thoughts, etc) to lose concentration or direction
-
to think or speak incoherently or illogically
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
wandersimple
-
wanderssimple
-
have wanderedperfect
-
has wanderedperfect
-
am wanderingprogressive
-
are wanderingprogressive
-
is wanderingprogressive
-
have been wanderingperfect progressive
-
has been wanderingperfect progressive
Past
-
wanderedsimple
-
had wanderedperfect
-
was wanderingprogressive
-
were wanderingprogressive
-
had been wanderingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of wander
First recorded before 900; Middle English wandren, Old English wandrian “to wend repeatedly” (cognate with German wandern ), from wendan; see wend
Explanation
The verb wander describes something that has lost track. If you're watching a boring movie, your mind might begin to wander. If you don't have a clear goal, you could wander too — meaning you drift aimlessly. When you wander mentally, your thoughts get lost. And when you wander physically, you don't have a destination, so it's also possible to lose your bearings and not know where you are — or how to get back. That's why wander is also used to describe someone who drifts from place to place or job to job without a sense of direction or purpose.
Vocabulary lists containing wander
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"The Pedestrian" by Ray Bradbury
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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:
So we kind of just walk and wander the neighborhoods or go to a park.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 7, 2026
I would wander in with my perfectly sized tote, allow whatever charmed me to determine dinner and wait for the ingredients to organize themselves.
From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026
Remember how Roger Clemens used to wander back to baseball after letting the rest of those suckers suffer through spring training and the early schedule?
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
They wander among the houses -- painted mostly in shades of white, yellow or brown -- and go biking or hiking in the surrounding hills of central Slovakia.
From Barron's ● Jul. 3, 2026
I wander into the kitchen for juice and toast.
From "Blended" by Sharon M. Draper
Chip falls in with a troupe of street performers, evades the police, juggles along the Seine and eventually wanders into a smoky bar, where Penelope is strumming her guitar.
From Salon ● Jun. 30, 2026
At 100, Attenborough no longer wanders the world's jungles and deserts.
From Barron's ● May 6, 2026
As she makes haste to finish her shopping, a young man wanders past clutching a small glass bottle of a green spread.
From BBC ● Apr. 23, 2026
The narrative wanders through exuberant wordplay and digressions that can become distracting.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 27, 2026
From the four walls of his bedroom to the rushing creek and deer-spotted trails tucked behind his house, he wanders and wonders.
From "A Bird Will Soar" by Alison Green Myers
The cross-Cabinet pet diplomacy apparently goes both ways: The Rubios’ goldendoodle has wandered into the Hegseth home.
From Salon ● Aug. 15, 2026
But in the three hacks the company eventually discovered, Claude didn’t break out of a sandbox; it simply wandered out of systems where the sandbox didn’t exist.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 30, 2026
The discovery began with an exceptionally bright flare produced when a star wandered too close to a massive black hole and was ripped apart by its intense gravity.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 28, 2026
Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management approved a plan to remove hundreds of horses that had wandered beyond their designated territory.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 2026
I didn’t know it was legal to work at fifteen, but he wandered into Big Ed’s General Store and they hired him on the spot.
From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller
The young mountain lion was spotted wandering along Foothill Boulevard between San Dimas Avenue and San Dimas Canyon Road in the morning, according to the San Dimas Sheriff’s Station.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 14, 2026
But that wouldn’t be much of a movie, so the family spends nearly the entire saga wandering around the neighborhood, looking for the dog and finding mayhem.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
Murphy was first spotted living beneath a bush before wandering into the car park of The Old Windmill pub in the city centre, "rake thin" and in need of care.
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026
Everyone at the market seemed either to have a distinct plan or to be genuinely content wandering.
From Salon ● Aug. 4, 2026
That is what Lord Fredrick had named them; what their original names were no one knew, since they had been found wandering naked and howling in the forest.
From "The Hidden Gallery" by Maryrose Wood
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.
