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# wander

«wander» in Mova's school dictionary: **To walk around slowly without a clear plan or without…** — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

### part of speech

verb (wander, wanders, wandered, wandering); noun (a wander — informal, UK)

### meaning for a pupil

1) To walk around slowly without a clear plan or without going anywhere in particular. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wander/#m1)

2) To go away from the place where you should be, often without meaning to (Don't wander off). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wander/#m2)

3) (of the mind or eyes) To stop paying attention and think or look at other things (My mind wandered in the lesson). [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wander/#m3)

4) A wander: a slow, relaxed walk. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wander/#m4)

### sense in the lessons

In safety lessons, «don't wander off» is a key rule on trips, at the beach, in malls, crowds and forests — stay with your group; if you get lost, stay where you are and ask a safe adult. In school, a wandering mind means losing concentration. In stories, characters wander into forests and adventures. Phrases: wander off, wander around, wander away, mind wanders, wanderer.

### examples

- We wandered around the market looking at the stalls. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wander/#x1)
- Don't wander off at the fair — stay with me. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wander/#x2)
- The little lamb wandered away from the flock. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wander/#x3)
- My mind started to wander during the long film. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wander/#x4)
- If you wander from the path, you might get lost. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wander/#x5)
- Let's go for a wander by the river. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wander/#x6)
- The puppy wandered into the neighbour's garden. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wander/#x7)
- We wandered silently homeward across the mountains. [tree →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wander/#x8)

### note

Spelling trap: «wander» (walk around without a plan, sounds like «WON-der») vs «wonder» (to ask yourself, to be amazed, sounds like «WUN-der»). Past: wandered.

### In the corpora

- [In autumn many house spiders run across the floor because the males are wandering in search of females.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/biology/220-spiders-and-other-minibeasts-under-logs-and-stones/10/)
- [About 700 years ago a wandering people, the Aztecs or Mexica, settled in the Valley of Mexico.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/history/19-the-aztecs-and-the-inca/0/)
- [The Israelites wandered forty years in the wilderness before reaching the Promised Land, and they often grumbled.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/religion-ethics/6-moses-and-the-exodus/16/)
- [And a certain man found him, and, behold, he was wandering in the field.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/torah/jps/GEN.1191/)
- [Lo, then would I wander far off, I would lodge in the wilderness.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PSA.899/)

### Trees and pragmatics

[Every meaning and example of «wander» parsed by Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/dictionaries/school/W/wander/), each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.