wondrous

• wonderous

From Middle English wondrous, alteration after the suffix -ous of Middle English wonders (“wondrous, wonderful”, adjective), from Old English wundres (“of wonder”), genitive singular of wundor (“wonder, miracle”), from Proto-Germanic *wundrą (“wonder”). Compare Dutch wonders, German Wunder.

• IPA^(key): /ˈwʌndɹəs/

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• Hyphenation: won‧drous

wondrous (comparative more wondrous, superlative most wondrous)

1. Wonderful; amazing, inspiring awe; marvelous.

   We all stared open-mouthed at the wondrous sight.

   • 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene ii]:

     I'll show thee the best springs; I'll pluck thee berries; / I'll fish for thee, and get thee wood enough. / A plague upon the tyrant that I serve! / I'll bear him no more sticks, but follow thee, / Thou wondrous man.

   • 1707, I[saac] Watts, “Crucifixion to the World by the Cross of Christ; Gal[atians] 6. 14. [When I Survey the Wondrous Cross]”, in Hymns and Spiritual Songs. […], London: […] J. Humfreys, for John Lawrence, […], →OCLC, book III (Prepared for the Holy Ordinance of the Lord’s Supper), stanza 1, page 189:

     VVhen I ſurvey the vvondrous Croſs / VVhere the young Prince of Glory dy'd, / My richeſt Gain I count but Loſs, / And pour Contempt on all my Pride.

• See Thesaurus:awesome

• wondrously

wondrous (comparative more wondrous, superlative most wondrous)

1. In a wonderful degree; remarkably; wondrously.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto VIII”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 53:

     And looking vp, when as his shield he lakt, / And sword saw not, he wexed wondrous woe

   • c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene viii]:

     […] And even there, his eye being big with tears, / Turning his face, he put his hand behind him, / And with affection wondrous sensible / He [Antonio] wrung Bassanio's hand; and so they parted.

   • a. 1887 (date written), Emily Dickinson, “As by the dead we love to sit”, in Mabel Loomis Todd and T[homas] W[entworth] Higginson, editors, Poems, Second Series, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, published 1891, page 193:

     As by the dead we love to sit, / Become so wondrous dear, / As for the lost we grapple, / Though all the rest are here,—