From Middle English wandren, wandrien, from Old English wandrian, from Proto-West Germanic *wandarōn, from *wandōn + *-rōn.

• (RP) IPA: /ˈwɒndə/
• (America) IPA: /ˈwɑndɚ/
• (West Midlands, especially, Birmingham) IPA: /ˈwʊndə/, IPA: /ˈwʌndə/

wander (wanders, present participle wandering; simple past and past participle wandered)

1. (intransitive) To move without purpose or specified destination; often in search of livelihood.

   Synonyms: err, roam

   to wander over the fields

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Hebrews 11:37 ↗:

     They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins.

   • 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC ↗:

     “A tight little craft,” was Austin’s invariable comment on the matron; […]. ¶ Near her wandered her husband, orientally bland, invariably affable, and from time to time squinting sideways, as usual, in the ever-renewed expectation that he might catch a glimpse of his stiff, retroussé moustache.

   • 1915, G[eorge] A. Birmingham [pseudonym; James Owen Hannay], chapter I, in Gossamer, New York, N.Y.: George H. Doran Company, →OCLC ↗:

     There is an hour or two, after the passengers have embarked, which is disquieting and fussy. […] Stewards, carrying cabin trunks, swarm in the corridors. Passengers wander restlessly about or hurry, with futile energy, from place to place.

2. (intransitive) To stray; stray from one's course; err.

   A writer wanders from his subject.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC ↗, Psalms cxix:10 ↗:

     O, let me not wander from thy commandments.

3. (intransitive) To commit adultery.

   Synonyms: cheat

4. (intransitive) To go somewhere indirectly or at varying speeds; to move in a curved path.

   Synonyms: drift

5. (intransitive) Of the mind, to lose focus or clarity of argument or attention.

   Synonyms: distract, scatter

• French: errer, vaguer, divaguer
• German: umherstreifen, umherstreichen, herumziehen, stromern, (dated) zigeunern, schlendern, bummeln, wandeln
• Italian: errare, vagare, girovagare, passeggiare, bighellonare, vagabondare
• Portuguese: vagar, perambular, vadiar
• Russian: броди́ть
• Spanish: vagar, divagar, errar, deambular

• Italian: allontanarsi, svicolare, perdersi
• Spanish: desviarse, descarriarse

• German: fremdgehen, einen Seitensprung tun
• Italian: tradire
• Spanish: engañar, aventurar

• German: umherschweifen
• Italian: vagare, serpeggiare
• Spanish: peregrinar

• German: abschweifen
• Italian: divagare
• Spanish: divagar, pajarear, pajaronear

wander

1. (countable) An act or instance of wandering.

   to go for a wander in the park

2. (uncountable, of a value, signal or similar) Deviation from a correct or normal value.

   Hyponym: polar wander

   baseline wander in ECG signals

• Italian: vagabondaggio
• Portuguese: vagueação, perambulação
• Russian: стра́нствие

1. Surname.