different between wonderful vs phenomenal

English

Alternative forms

• wonderfool (eye dialect), woonderful (eye dialect), wonderfull (archaic), wondreful (obsolete), wondrefull (obsolete), 1drfl (internet slang)

Etymology

From Middle English wonderful, wondirful, from Old English wundorful (“wonderful”), from Proto-West Germanic *wundrafull, equivalent to wonder +? -ful. Cognate Dutch wondervol (“wonderful”), German wundervoll (“wonderful”).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?w?n.d?.fl/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?w?n.d?.fl?/
• Rhymes: blunderful

Adjective

wonderful (comparative wonderfuller or wonderfuler or more wonderful, superlative wonderfullest or wonderfulest or most wonderful)

1. Tending to excite wonder; surprising, extraordinary.
   • 1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial 2007, p. 278:

     He is massively corrupt. It is wonderful how the man's popularity survives.

2. Surprisingly excellent; very good or admirable, extremely impressive.

   They served a wonderful six-course meal.

Synonyms

• (excellent, extremely impressive): great, amazing, astonishing, incredible, marvelous, fantastic, frabjous, mint
• See also Thesaurus:wonderful
• See also Thesaurus:excellent

Antonyms

• (excellent, extremely impressive): terrible, horrible

Translations

Adverb

wonderful (not comparable)

1. (dialect) Exceedingly, to a great extent.

Related terms

• women are wonderful effect
• wonder
• wonderfully
• wonderland
• wonderment
• wondrous

Anagrams

• underflow, wondreful

English

Alternative forms

• phænomenal (archaic)

Etymology

phenomenon +? -al

Adjective

phenomenal (comparative more phenomenal, superlative most phenomenal)

1. (colloquial) Very remarkable; highly extraordinary; amazing.
2. (sciences) Perceptible by the senses through immediate experience.
3. (philosophy) Of or pertaining to the appearance of the world, as opposed to the ultimate nature of the world as it is in itself.

Synonyms

• (very remarkable): awesome (slang)

Derived terms

• phenomenal world
• transphenomenal

Translations

References

• Douglas Harper (2001–2021) , “phenomenal”, in Online Etymology Dictionary