MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10

Wunderkind

[VUN-də-kihnd]Part of speech: noun

Origin: german, late 19th century

A person who achieves great success when relatively young.
A child prodigy.

Examples of Wunderkind in a sentence

She earned the nickname Wunderkind when she sold her startup for $5 million at age 23.
The piano teacher always hoped that she might come across a wunderkind in her lessons.

About Wunderkind

All proud parents watching their children learn new skills might be tempted to use the word wunderkind. But you would be called rude if you pointed out that wunderkind should be reserved for a child prodigy who is producing work at the level of an adult. If their pride and joy grows up to be an unusually successful twentysomething they can use wunderkind again.

Did you Know?

Some things just sound cooler in a foreign language. You could call that talented kid a child prodigy, but wunderkind is so much more fun. The direct translation from German is wonder child, and don't forget to pronounce the "V" at the beginning of wunderkind.