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wonderfully

UK/wʌn.də(ɹ).fli/US/wʌn.də(ɹ).fli/
adverbB1+Common in everyday speech and writing · #5,631 of 15,258neutral

Wonderfully means extremely well or pleasingly. Wonderfully written, sleep wonderfully, wonderfully odd.

It intensifies as much as it praises, so wonderfully odd means very odd rather than pleasantly so — the wonder in it is now nearly all gone. It once meant in a way that causes wonder, which is why old texts use it about terrible things too.

Definitions of wonderfully

  1. 1adverbwonderfullyExtremely well or pleasingly.B1+

    “The children behaved wonderfully at the wedding and even danced with their grandparents.”

wonderfully is a degree.

Also accepted in games: beautifully

Where it comes from

Wonderful plus -ly. Wonder is Old English wundor, something astonishing, of unknown origin.

  1. Middle English

    wonderfully

  2. English, today

    wonderfully

From Middle English wonderfully, wunderfullie, wonderfulliche, equivalent to wonderful + -ly.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

wonderfully in the wild

  • Stivale writes that the "evocation of painful memory in Cajun music...while also expressing joy in the present and hope for the future...are summed up wonderfully...by the expression...".

    Laissez les bons temps rouler

  • Described as "wonderfully atmospheric", the film is based on the opera of the same name by Gustave Charpentier.

    Louise (1939 film)

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

  • wonder
  • wonderful