wunderkind
/ˈvʊn.də.kɪnd/
"wunderkind" is a 10-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“wunderkind” is uncommon English (frequency #84,922 among 1,759 “W” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #84,922
- frequency rank, English
- 1,759
- “W” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A child prodigy; a wonderchild.
Corpus desk
Index EN-wunderkind · wunderkind · English
wunderkind · rank #84,922 · 0 variants · 0 confusables
- FREQ-RARE #84,922
- LEN-MEGA 10 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-0 No pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 1,759
- PHOTO-FINISH wroth
Nearest frequency peer: wroth (-2 rank slots)
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.
Long-tail ranks near “wunderkind”
Sparse band: bars invert rank so rarer forms read shorter
- Wookiee
Wookiee
15,084 corpus weight
- wroth
wroth
15,081 corpus weight
- wunderkind
wunderkind
15,079 corpus weight
- Wuppertal
Wuppertal
15,077 corpus weight
- WYSIWYG
WYSIWYG
15,075 corpus weight
- yella
yella
15,072 corpus weight
What this shows Long-tail view: where “wunderkind” sits against similarly uncommon English ranks.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | wunderkind |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈvʊn.də.kɪnd/ |
| Letters | 10 |
| Frequency rank | #84,922 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Long-tail rank of “wunderkind” in English
Rare enough to double-check
wunderkind is uncommon English at frequency #84,922 among 1,759 “W” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed /ˈvʊn.də.kɪnd/. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for wunderkind, typically a sign the spelling maps closely to how the word sounds. Our dataset records no confusable match here, since no other headword is close enough in sound or shape to pair with it.
Etymologically, the entry records: Unadapted borrowing from German Wunderkind, from Wunder (“wonder”) + Kind (“child”). Compare native wonderchild. The correct English form is wunderkind, spelled W-U-N-D-E-R-K-I-N-D.
Definition
- 1A child prodigy; a wonderchild.
- 2A highly talented or gifted individual, especially one who is successful at a young age.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how wunderkind appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Harriet Pappenheim, a psychotherapist at Park Avenue Relationship Consultants who wrote “For Richer or Poorer,” a 2006 book on money in marriage, said that the repercussions could be acute for Wall Street wunderkinds who define their identities through their job titles and the size of their bonuses.
The downfall of Austria’s onetime political Wunderkind put a spotlight on the cozy, sometimes corrupt, relationship between right-wing populists and parts of the news media.
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from German Wunderkind, from Wunder (“wonder”) + Kind (“child”). Compare native wonderchild.
This word in other languages
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "wunderkind", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 10 letters (nearest by frequency rank).