I have had this particular mix-up in mind for some time. When I typed the title, I realized that it sounded familiar, so I looked it up. Lo and behold: it’s a song!

By the way, it is ‘lo and behold’ not ‘low and behold’. Lo is an archaic interjection, and the phrase as a whole expresses surprise or wonder according to merriam-webster.com.

Which brings us back to the title of this post. ‘Wonder’ has a couple of different meanings: to be awed by something, as above, or to be curious about something. This is the meaning that I find often confused with ‘wander,’ which means to ramble or take a walk.

The main reason these seem to get mixed up is that they are nearly homophones, and in some accents and dialects they may be more or less similar, but they have distinct meanings, as expressed in the title of the song ‘I Wonder as I Wander.’

This is one of those English word pairs that we must learn to differentiate and be careful in usage. I know that I’ve accidentally typed one when I meant the other, so I’m certain that that sometimes happens to others. I will beat this dead horse into the ground: proofread, proofread, proofread!

That is all.