wunderkind
Americannoun
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a wonder child or child prodigy.
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a person who succeeds, especially in business, at a comparatively early age.
noun
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a child prodigy
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a person who is exceptionally successful in his field while still young
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of wunderkind
1890–95; < German, equivalent to Wunder wonder + Kind child
Explanation
A wunderkind is someone who achieves a huge amount of success at a young age. Publish a bestselling novel before you turn 14 and everyone will be calling you a wunderkind. If you think this word looks a lot like "wonder kid," you're on the right track — the German Wunderkind means "wonder-child." It initially described musical prodigies like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, who composed his first piece of music at the age of five. Today you can use it for any amazing young person, like your six-year-old cousin who does crazy skateboard tricks or the student in math class who rapidly solves equations that stump her teacher.
Vocabulary lists containing wunderkind
Words Derived from German
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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:
It wasn't long before Mourinho was calling his former wunderkind "one of the best midfielders in Europe".
From BBC ● Jun. 10, 2026
But by the festival’s end, the wunderkind had excitingly found his way with the orchestra.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 26, 2026
In one, Grimes offered to help Musk get $5 billion in funding from then-cryptocurrency wunderkind Sam Bankman-Fried, whom he described as an “Ultra genius and doer builder like your formula.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 10, 2026
Also, a wunderkind dobro player named Jerry Douglas.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 28, 2026
An escape hatch was provided by his brother-in-law Landon Thorne, a Wall Street wunderkind who proposed that they form an investment banking partnership.
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
Bogdanovich made “What’s Up, Doc?” after “The Last Picture Show,” the ecstatically received film that established his reputation as one of New Hollywood’s wunderkinder.
From New York Times ● May 14, 2020
Like many wunderkinder, Korngold had a bumpy transition to adulthood.
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 12, 2019
Forty years later those wunderkinder are now midcareer and have accomplished even more than expected, according to a recent follow-up survey.
From Scientific American ● Jan. 29, 2015
Lots of the tech wunderkinder honed their skills during their service in army units whose products will never be cleared for publication.
From Slate ● Jan. 2, 2014
He introduced Ernest Lawrence to his readers as the leader of a “scouting party” of Berkeley wunderkinder, most of them “still in their early thirties.”
From "Big Science" by Michael Hiltzik
The Leitersdorf brothers, who come from a prominent Israeli family that includes real-estate developers, venture capitalists and startup founders, are wunderkinds of the country’s tech industry.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 18, 2026
“The industry is full of charismatic wunderkinds, opportunistic fraudsters, and self-proclaimed investment advisors promoting financial products with little to no transparency.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 23, 2022
All three children were wunderkinds, but Thile stood out for his chutzpah and ostentatious talent.
From New York Times ● May 25, 2021
There were always wunderkinds and rising stars and the occasional military leader but running for office meant getting inside the system and working your way up.
From Fox News ● Jun. 29, 2020
It was a time when financial wunderkinds figured out how to use massive amounts of debt to go on buying sprees, leaving a path of devastation.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 23, 2019
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.
