Word Direct Answers

What does "wonder" mean?

Wonder: Wonder is the effect of novelty upon ignorance. Johnson. Note: Wonder expresses less than astonishment, and much less than amazement. It differs from admiration, as now used, in not being necessarily accompanied with love, esteem, or approbation.

Additional senses

  1. 2.A cause of wonder; that which excites surprise; a strange thing; a prodigy; a miracle. " Babylon, the wonder of all tongues." Milton. To try things oft, and never to give over, doth wonders. Bacon. I am as a wonder unto many. Ps. lxxi.
  2. 3.Seven wonders of the world. See in the Dictionary of Noted Names in Fiction.
  3. 4.To be affected with surprise or admiration; to be struck with astonishment; to be amazed; to marvel. I could not sufficiently wonder at the intrepidity of these diminutive mortals. Swift. We cease to wonder at what we understand. Johnson.
  4. 5.To feel doubt and curiosity; to wait with uncertain expectation; to query in the mind; as, he wondered why they came. I wonder, in my soul, What you would ask me, that I should deny. Shak.
  5. 6.Wonderful. [Obs.] Gower. After that he said a wonder thing. Chaucer.
  6. 7.Wonderfully. [Obs.] Chaucer.

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