The term Wunderkind is sometimes used as a synonym for prodigy, particularly in media accounts. Wunderkind also is used to recognize those who achieve success and acclaim early in their adult careers.
Examples of particularly extreme prodigies could include Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Felix Mendelssohn, Evgeny Kissin and Teresa Milanollo in music; Bobby Fischer, Samuel Reshevsky, Judit Polgár, Magnus Carlsen, Sergey Karjakin, Paul Morphy and José Capablanca in chess; Carl Friedrich Gauss, Shakuntala Devi, Srinivasa Ramanujan, John von Neumann and Terence Tao in mathematics; Pablo Picasso and Wang Ximeng in art; and Saul Kripke in philosophy. French composer Camille Saint-Saëns has been recognized by musical historians as one of the greatest musical child prodigies, but his mother was cautious, and didn seek to exploit her sons skills, fearing it would cause him emotional trouble. (source : wikipedia)
