Let's just go ahead and kill this back and forth.

Yes, sonder is a word. The definition used in the article is debatable as to whether it's a word. It's a word invented in 2012 by a guy that wrote a book about inventing new words for emotions.

>Coined in 2012 by John Koenig, whose project, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, aims to come up with new words for emotions that currently lack words.[1][2] Related to German sonder- (“special”) and French sonder (“to probe”).[3]

https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/sonder#Etymology

Yes, Sonder is a word in German which means "special", as in the German term Sonderweg which is the German equivalent of "American Exceptionalism" ("German Exceptionalism", I suppose).

The German "sonder" referred to in this branch of the conversation (i.e. meaning special) is not a word on its own but a prefix for other words [0] (remember that germans like to build words from multiple separate parts and words).

While "sonder" itself is a word, it means something different when used on its own (without) [1].

0: https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/Sonder_ 1: https://www.duden.de/rechtschreibung/sonder

Any word in any language can be turned into an English word, simply by mispronouncing it.

Sonder is also quite a pedestrian word in German, as in "sonderangebot" (special offer, or sale!)