Wondering

How to spell wondering

9 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce wondering

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does wondering mean?

1. verbAsking oneself a question or thinking with curiosity about something.

Wondering in a sentence

• She kept wondering whether the train would arrive on time.

• He was wondering how much the repair would cost.

Where does wondering come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is the present participle of the verb 'wonder', which descends directly from the Old English noun wundor, meaning a marvel or an astonishing thing, and the related verb wundrian, 'to be astonished or to marvel at'. The word is purely Germanic and has close cousins across the family, including German Wunder and Dutch wonder, all carrying the same idea of amazement. Over the centuries the sense softened from open-mouthed astonishment toward the gentler, more reflective meaning we use today: turning a question over in the mind out of curiosity. The spelling stayed close to its Old English root, keeping the short 'o' that is pronounced with an 'uh' sound, which is one reason it is so easily muddled with 'wandering'. The two words look almost identical on the page but come from entirely separate roots, since 'wander' grew from a different Germanic stem meaning to roam.

How the word is built

• wonder (from Old English wundor: a marvel, a thing that astonishes)
• -ing (present participle suffix)