1 ~ (about sth) to think about sth and try to decide what is true, what will happen, what you should do, etc:
[Vwh-] I wonder who she is. * I wonder why he left his job. * I was just beginning to wonder where you were. * [V] 'Why do you want to know?' 'No particular reason. I was just wondering.' * We were wondering about next April for the wedding. * [Vspeech] 'What should I do now?' she wondered.
2 [Vwh-] used as a polite way of asking a question or asking sb to do sth:
I wonder if you can help me. * I was wondering whether you'd like to come to a party.
3 ~ (at sth) to be very surprised by sth:
[V] She wondered at her own stupidity. * (BrE, spoken) He's gone and left us to do all the work, I shouldn't wonder (= I wouldn't be surprised if he had). * [V(that)] I wonder (that) he didn't hurt himself jumping over that wall. * I don't wonder you're tired. You've had a busy day.
Part of speech: noun
1 [U] a feeling of surprise and admiration that you have when you see or experience sth beautiful, unusual or unexpected
SYNAWE:
He retained a childlike sense of wonder. * She gazed down in wonder at the city spread below her.
2 [C] something or a quality in sth that fills you with surprise and admiration:
The Grand Canyon is one of the natural wonders of the world. * the wonders of modern technology * That's the wonder of poetry-you're always discovering something new. * the Seven Wonders of the ancient world
3 [sing.] (informal) a person who is very clever at doing sth; a person or thing that seems very good or effective:
Geoff, you're a wonder! I would never have thought of doing that. * Have you seen the boy wonder play yet? * a new wonder drug
IDIOMS
do wonders (for sb/sth) to have a very good effect on sb/sth:
The news has done wonders for our morale.
(it's) no / little / small wonder (that)... it is not surprising:
It is little wonder (that) she was so upset. * (informal) No wonder you're tired, you've been walking for hours.
it's a wonder (that)... (especially spoken) it is surprising or strange:
It's a wonder (that) more people weren't hurt.
wonders will never cease (spoken, usually ironic) a phrase used to express surprise and pleasure at sth:
'I've cleaned my room.' 'Wonders will never cease!'
work wonders to achieve very good results:
Her new diet and exercise programme has worked wonders for her.
moreatCHINLESS, NINE
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About this entry
This is a English–English dictionary entry.
Sourced from Main Dictionary in Lughet's collection.
This word also appears under other sources in Lughet's collection — see the list below.
This entry for wonder is sourced from Main Dictionary, one of the dictionaries and corpora merged into Lughet.
Is wonder a noun, verb, or something else?
In this entry, wonder is tagged as verb.
Does wonder appear elsewhere on Lughet?
Yes — wonder appears under other sources or language pairs in Lughet's collection. See the list below.
What is Lughet?
Lughet is a free trilingual dictionary covering nearly five million entries across Uyghur, Chinese, and English, drawn from more than ten source dictionaries and corpora.
