wonderful
Americanadjective
-
excellent; great; marvelous.
We all had a wonderful weekend.
- Synonyms:
- phenomenal, astounding, amazing, astonishing, prodigious, miraculous, wondrous, awesome, strange, curious, unique
-
of a sort that causes or arouses wonder; amazing; astonishing.
The storm was wonderful to behold.
adjective
-
exciting a feeling of wonder; marvellous or strange
-
extremely fine; excellent
Other Word Forms
- unwonderful adjective
- wonderfully adverb
- wonderfulness noun
Etymology
Origin of wonderful
First recorded before 1100; wonder ( def. ) + -ful ( def. )
Explanation
Wonderful is better than good — it's even better than great, like your wonderful luck — finding buried treasure on your very first diving expedition. When you look at the parts that make us wonderful, it is easy to see that it means "full of wonder," or awe, admiration, even surprise. The giant Rockefeller Center Christmas tree lit up in all its splendor is a wonderful sight — tourists and New Yorkers alike stop to stare. Other things that are wonderful are very personal to you, like wonderful memories of spending time with your grandparents.
Vocabulary lists containing wonderful
More Positive Words to Describe a Person
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Thumbs Up: Synonyms for "Good"
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"A Poem for My Librarian, Mrs. Long," Vocabulary from the poem
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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.
There’s a wonderful Hollywood wrestling guru these days named Chavo Guerrero.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 15, 2026
“Happy Birthday—and may every day be another wonderful secret,” the letter said.
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 13, 2026
It proves you can create something wonderful in a minuscule amount of time and almost no effort.
From Salon • Apr. 13, 2026
That means smiling when you see your friend’s daughter the next time, and telling her how wonderful the wedding was and how beautiful she looked, and asking her about her honeymoon.
From MarketWatch • Apr. 13, 2026
Texting was wonderful, but it wasn’t the same as seeing emotions play out on his face, hearing the quiet beat between a question and an answer.
From "Bye Forever, I Guess" by Jodi Meadows
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.
