wunderkind
Americannoun
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wunderkinds,
plural
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wunderkinder
plural
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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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Off the Record
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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:
Among them was Sam Bankman-Fried, the crypto-finance wunderkind sentenced in 2024 to 25 years in prison for fraud.
From Barron's ● Oct. 2, 2026
The wunderkind coach knew he was inheriting a football program in a years-long slump.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
We lead today with new reporting on the unraveling of Situational Awareness, detailing how its wunderkind founder Leopold Aschenbrenner forged close ties with tech’s top players even as he rankled some of his own bosses.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 26, 2026
And as it bookends a summer led by “Obsession” and “Backrooms” fervor, with studios clamoring to find the next Gen Z wunderkind, Ullom quietly but consistently surpasses his peers at every winding turn.
From Salon ● Aug. 24, 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
Always wunderkinder of virtuosity, Cunningham’s dancers had to be as intellectually brainy as they were physically smart.
From New York Times ● Sep. 1, 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
Scott Duncan is America’s youngest billionaire to have inherited his wealth — setting him apart from the tech wunderkinder on the Forbes 400.
From Forbes ● Sep. 29, 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
Though Mr. Bogdanovich repeatedly disavowed the connection, critics liked to point out affinities between Welles’s career and his own: Both men began as directorial wunderkinds.
From New York Times ● Jan. 6, 2022
It’s just that sometimes certain wunderkinds come along and make everyone forget the adage.
From Washington Post ● May 19, 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
For one, both are wunderkinds of a sort.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 19, 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.
