Wanton is an adjective meaning immoral or unchaste, merciless, unrestrainedly excessive, or undisciplined. The word also has rarer verb and noun senses—basically, to be wanton and one who is wanton. A wonton is a noodle-dough dumpling filled with pork or other meat and boiled in soup or fried. It’s a delicious Chinese side dish. The two are homophones, which makes their occasional confusion inevitable.
Examples
Just for fun, let’s look at some charming examples of wonton mistakenly used in place of wanton:
Mitchem is facing charges of fleeing and evading, wonton endangerment and operating on a suspended driver’s license. [WHAS]
Still, this music has many cool moments to recommend it. And in truth, part of its charm is in the wonton moments that occur … [Times Square Chronicles]
As I pay the sum of £3,500 per month to the Vale of Glamorgan Council in rates, it hurts me to see such wonton waste of money taking place. [Penarth Times]
These writers use wonton correctly:
I couldn’t find wonton wrappers so I got egg roll wrappers, which were too big. [GoErie.com]
To the delight of patrons, wonton soup and fried rice become gnocchi with Himalayan truffles, sea urchin sashimi, chicken fried beef jerky and other specialties. [The Business Insider]
And these writers use wanton well
But the way the courts have applied it, the prosecutor has to show a wanton and willful disregard for human life … [Baltimore Sun]
But even though Mrs Cutler clearly suspected her nephew, she forced Gladys and me to listen to a long lecture on the evils of wanton behaviour. [Daily Mail]
