- 1
'Wonderment' is the feeling you have when something is so beautiful or so strange that you just look at it, a little lost for words. It is surprise mixed with pleasure and a touch of respect. You watch a display in wonderment; a child stares in wonderment at a big animal at the zoo. The word is uncountable — you have wonderment, not 'a wonderment' — and it lives mostly in three phrases: 'in wonderment', 'with wonderment', and 'a sense of wonderment'. Now the honest part: 'wonderment' and 'wonder' mean nearly the same thing, and 'wonder' is the word people actually use. 'Wonderment' is longer, more formal, more literary, and it sounds a bit old. Some writers choose it exactly because the extra slow the sentence down and make the moment feel bigger. Others feel it is overwritten. It shows up a lot in writing about childhood, nature, and art. In ordinary speech, you would say 'I couldn't believe it' or 'It was amazing'.
驚奇(讚嘆)之感;驚嘆
組成'wonder' + '-ment'. The ending '-ment' turns a verb into the name of a thing or a state — the way 'enjoy' becomes 'enjoyment' and 'excite' becomes 'excitement'. So 'wonderment' is literally the state of wondering. That '-ment' ending came into English from French, which is why it feels a little more formal than plain English endings.
同家族的字
- wonderthe root — and the everyday word for the same feeling
- enjoymentsame '-ment' ending turning a verb into a state
- excitementsame '-ment' ending, same job
原始詞典資料2 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法,原文照列,我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的;有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
wondermentnoun
- 1
Wonder; astonishment.
- "Blind!" exclaimed the old fellow, sitting up in startled wonderment. "You mean it, sir? You walk all right and you look at me as if you saw me. You're kidding surely."
- 2
A puzzle or curiosity.
資料來源:英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary(CC BY-SA 4.0)。 原文照列,未經改寫。