Words of Positivity
Browse the A to Z index4,633 ENTRIES

Wonder-working

adj.hopeful, kindliterary

What it means

Producing remarkable, beneficial, or seemingly marvelous results.

Reach for it when describing a person, force, or act believed to produce extraordinary results

The story celebrates a wonder-working healer who serves remote villages.

Choose between these

5
  • everyday

    marvelous

    strong admiration is meant without causation

    not when Marvelous praises rather than explains results.

  • warm

    healing

    restoration of health or wholeness is central

    not when Healing is narrower and should not promise a cure.

  • warm

    miraculous

    the result appears beyond natural expectation

    not when Miraculous makes a religious or supernatural claim.

  • professional

    transformative

    deep durable change is the actual effect

    not when Transformation can be negative.

  • formal

    powerful

    substantial influence or effect is demonstrable

    not when Power can harm as well as help.

Said against

3
  • ineffectual
  • harmful
  • ordinary

It naturally appears in

3
  • wonder-working power

    The hymn celebrates wonder-working power in language of its period.

  • wonder-working healer

    Stories portrayed the traveling healer as wonder-working.

  • wonder-working remedy

    Advertisements falsely presented the tonic as a wonder-working remedy.

Where this comes from

Wonder-working often carries religious or archaic force; for health products it can become a misleading efficacy claim.

The definition and the example on this page are written here. The dictionaries above ground which meaning is being described, not the wording.