Word.ws English Dictionary

curiouser and curiouser

Syllables: cu·ri·ous·er and cu·ri·ous·er/ˌkjʊəɹɪəsə n̩ ˈkjʊəɹɪəsə/US/ˌkjʊɹiəsɚ n̩ ˈkjʊɹiəsɚ/

curiouser and curiouser phrase: used to describe or react to an increasingly mysterious or peculiar situation.

Phrase

curiouser and curiouser

  1. (idiomatic) Used to describe or react to an increasingly mysterious or peculiar situation.
    • "Curiouser and curiouser!" cried Alice (she was so much surprised, that for the moment she quite forgot how to speak good English); "now I'm opening out like the largest telescope that ever was! Good-bye, feet!"1865 November (indicated as 1866), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], “The Pool of Tears”, in Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, London: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 15
    • Greco-German ‘Fingergate’ Gets Curiouser and Curiouser [title]2015 March 20, Robert Mackey, “Greco-German ‘Fingergate’ gets curiouser and curiouser”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on...

Origin of curiouser and curiouser

From Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1865) by the English author Lewis Carroll (1832–1898): see the quotation.

Questions about curiouser and curiouser

What does curiouser and curiouser mean?
Curiouser and curiouser means used to describe or react to an increasingly mysterious or peculiar situation.
What part of speech is curiouser and curiouser?
Curiouser and curiouser is a phrase.
How do you pronounce curiouser and curiouser?
Curiouser and curiouser is pronounced /ˌkjʊəɹɪəsə n̩ ˈkjʊəɹɪəsə/ (UK).

Words near curiouser and curiouser in the dictionary

  1. curiositye
  2. curioso
  3. curiosum
  4. curious
  5. curiouser
  6. curiouser and curiouser
  7. curiousest
  8. curiousity
  9. curiously
  10. curiously recurring template pattern
  11. curiously recurring template patterns

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: curiouser and curiouser (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-curiouser and curiouser.wav.

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