wander
Syllables: wan·derUK/ˈwɒndə//ˈwɑndɚ/
wander verb: to move without purpose or specified destination; often in search of livelihood.
Verb
wander (third-person singular simple present wanders, present participle wandering, simple past and past participle wandered)
- To move without purpose or specified destination; often in search of livelihood.
- to wander over the fields
- They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Hebrews 11:37
- To stray; stray from one's course; err.
- A writer wanders from his subject.
- O, let me not wander from thy commandments.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Psalms cxix:10
- To commit adultery.
- Synonyms:
- cheat
- To go somewhere indirectly or at varying speeds; to move in a curved path.
- Synonyms:
- drift
- Of the mind, to lose focus or clarity of argument or attention.
Noun
wander (countable and uncountable, plural wanders)
- An act or instance of wandering.
- to go for a wander in the park
- Deviation from a correct or normal value.
- baseline wander in ECG signals
Proper noun capitalized: Wander
Wander (plural Wanders)
- A surname.
wander meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
wander in Hindi
- to move without purpose or specified destination; often in search of livelihood
- भटकना bhaṭaknā, घूमना ghūmnā
wander in Tamil
- to move without purpose or specified destination; often in search of livelihood
- அலை alai, திரி tiri
wander in Marathi
- to wander, roam
- हिंडणे hiṇḍṇe, फिरणे phirṇe
- to wander, to roam
- भटकणे bhaṭakṇe
wander in Urdu
- to move without purpose or specified destination; often in search of livelihood
- گھومنا ghūmnā, پھرنا phirnā, بھٹَکنا bhaṭaknā
More languagesFewer languages
- wander in Bengali
- ঘুরে বেড়ানো, পথভ্রষ্ট হওয়া
- wander in Malayalam
- അലയുക alayuka
- wander in Kannada
- ತಿರುಗು tirugu, ಹರಿ hari
- wander in Punjabi
- ਫਿਰਨਾ phirnā, پھرنا phirnā
- wander in Gujarati
- ભટકવું
- wander in Odia
- ବିଚରଣ କରିବା
- wander in Sanskrit
- वञ्चति vañcati
- wander in Nepali
- डुल्नु ḍulnu
- wander in Arabic
- تَجَوَّلَ tajawwala
- wander in Persian
- پرسه زدن porse zadan
- wander in Thai
- ท่องเที่ยว tɔ̂ng-tîao
- wander in Vietnamese
- lang thang
- Kashmiri
- پھیرُن phērun, اورٕ یور پَکُن ōrụ yōr pakun, اورٕ یور کَرُن) ōrụ yōr karun
Examples of wander in a sentence
- I might wander down to the construction site for a nosy at what they're building.
- I'm not about to wander around at night to find it.
- Dusty left the taproom of the tavern and wandered into the small arcade in back.
Synonyms of wander
Forms of wander
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | wanders |
| present participle | wandering |
| past participle | wandered |
| past | wandered |
| Noun | |
| plural | wanders |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Wanders |
Origin of wander
From Middle English wandren, from Old English wandrian (“to wander, roam, fly around, hover; change; stray, err”), from Proto-West Germanic *wandarōn (“to wander”), from *wandōn (“to turn, change”) + *-rōn (frequentative suffix). Cognate with Scots wander (“to wander”), German wandern (“to wander, roam, hike, migrate”), Dutch wandelen (“to wander, roam, hike, migrate”), Danish vandre (“to wander, roam, hike, migrate”), Swedish vandra (“to wander, hike”).
Words formed from wander
Phrases with wander
Words that rhyme with wander
Questions about wander
- What does wander mean?
- Wander means to move without purpose or specified destination; often in search of livelihood.
- What is wander in Hindi?
- Wander in Hindi is भटकना (bhaṭaknā), घूमना (ghūmnā). See Wander meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is wander?
- Wander can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce wander?
- Wander is pronounced /ˈwɒndə/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of wander?
- The past tense of wander is wandered.
Words near wander in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: wander (page history and authors); Wander (page history and authors); फिरणे (Marathi) (page history and authors); wander (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); അലയുക (Malayalam) (page history and authors); ತಿರುಗು (Kannada) (page history and authors); پھرنا (Punjabi) (page history and authors); wander (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); wander (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: en-us-wander.ogg.
Cite this entry: “wander.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/wander. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.