small wonder

noun

"small-wonder" is a 11-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“small wonder” is uncommon English (outside the top frequency list), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

Unranked
below top-frequency English
12
letters

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - An event or fact whose cause or rationale is not difficult to discern; an unsurprising occurrence.

Corpus desk

Index EN-small-wonder · small wonder · English

small wonder · unranked · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-UNRANKED Unranked
  • LEN-MEGA 12 letters
  • VOW-3 3 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-THIN "S" thin
  • PHOTO-UNK Peer pending

Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Key facts for small wonder
PropertyValue
Headwordsmall wonder
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechNoun
Letters12
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Long-tail rank of “small wonder” in English

small wonderranks outside the top 100,000 English headwords, in the long tail of specialist, archaic, or seldom-used vocabulary, exactly the territory where a reader stops mid-sentence to double-check spelling.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

small wonder is uncommon English outside the top frequency list, classed as anoun. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "An event or fact whose cause or rationale is not difficult to discern; an unsurprising occurrence.".

We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for small wonder, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. Our confusable-pair dataset has no match for it, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct English form is small wonder, spelled S-M-A-L-L- -W-O-N-D-E-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    An event or fact whose cause or rationale is not difficult to discern; an unsurprising occurrence.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how small wonder appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Small wonder if he had loved her for herself, she was so beautiful.
  2. Small wonder that I am restless. I think, and think, and I cannot cease from thinking.

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "small wonder"?
"small wonder" is spelled S-M-A-L-L- -W-O-N-D-E-R.
What does "small wonder" mean?
As a noun, "small wonder" means: An event or fact whose cause or rationale is not difficult to discern; an unsurprising occurrence.
What language does "small wonder" come from?
"small wonder" is a English word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list