Wonderfully

How to spell wonderfully

11 letters · 4 syllables

How to pronounce wonderfully

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does wonderfully mean?

1. adverbIn a way that is remarkably good, pleasing, or impressive.

Wonderfully in a sentence

• The new sofa fits wonderfully in the small living room.

• The team performed wonderfully under tight deadline pressure.

Where does wonderfully come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is built on the native Old English noun 'wundor', which meant a marvel or an astonishing thing, the same root that gives us 'wonder' today. From the noun came the adjective 'wonderful', literally 'full of wonder', recorded in English well before the 1400s. Adding the adverb-forming '-ly' produced 'wonderfully', meaning 'in a way that inspires wonder' and later, more loosely, 'extremely well' or 'very pleasingly'. The spelling trap lives at the seam: 'wonderful' ends in a single 'l', and the adverb adds '-ly', so the join produces just one doubled pairing of letters, giving '-fully' with two l's. Related Germanic cousins such as Dutch 'wonder' and German 'Wunder' share the same ancient root, showing how deeply embedded the word is in the everyday Germanic core of English.

How the word is built

• wonder (marvel)
• -ful (full of)
• -ly (adverb suffix)