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.
"I just wanted to let them know what wonderful people they are," Benic said, who gave the couple children's colouring books for Prince Archie and Princess Lilibet.
From BBC • Apr. 16, 2026
“Those moments showed me who Mark really was. His warmth, his endless curiosity, that wonderful sense of adventure he brought to everything.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 15, 2026
I really did have a great rapport with them, and they would pull on my beard, and we really had a wonderful love affair.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 15, 2026
It proves you can create something wonderful in a minuscule amount of time and almost no effort.
From Salon • Apr. 13, 2026
A whistle shrilled—and there was the strangest, most wonderful thing she’d ever seen: a wild-haired girl blowing a shell and riding a sea lion across the waves.
From "Nim’s Island" by Wendy Orr
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.
