variants
or whizz
whizzed; whizzing
1
: to hum, whir, or hiss like a speeding object (such as an arrow or ball) passing through air
2
: to fly or move swiftly especially with a whiz
cars whizzing by
: to cause to whiz
especially
: to rotate very rapidly
variants
or whizz
plural whizzes
1
: a hissing, buzzing, or whirring sound
2
: a movement or passage of something accompanied by a whizzing sound
3
sometimes vulgar
: an act of urinating
—used especially in the phrase take a whiz
Synonyms
Verb
Noun (1)
Noun (2)
Examples of whiz in a Sentence
Verb
The ball whizzed through the air.
Cars whizzed by on the highway.
He whizzed past us on skates.
She whizzed through the exam.
Recent Examples on the Web
Linda Zavoral, The Mercury News, 27 Mar. 2024
Patients recounted bullets whizzing by in the hospital courtyard.
—Frances Robles, New York Times, 17 Mar. 2024
The sphere whizzed through the sky at unsettling speeds, then disappeared behind a grove of trees.
—Lucas Ropek / Gizmodo, Quartz, 19 Mar. 2024
In a separate video taken from behind Homa, the ball is shown whizzing over a spectator’s head before smashing against a tree just behind them.
—Ben Morse, CNN, 18 Mar. 2024
Jeff Smith was whizzing along on a snowmobile one evening a few years back when something dark appeared in front of him.
—CBS News, 6 Mar. 2024
Reports from the scene said airport employees and others fled the scene amid whizzing bullets.
—Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY, 5 Mar. 2024
The show, about an hour long, whizzed by in a trance of mostly midtempo rockers without gimmicks.
—Sophia Solano, Washington Post, 14 Feb. 2024
Before the halftime show, surprise halftime show performer H.E.R. whizzed by in a golf cart, smiling wide and waved to the backup dancers who started to line up before taking the stage with Usher.
—Alex Ross, Peoplemag, 13 Feb. 2024
Ryan Gajewski, The Hollywood Reporter, 8 Apr. 2024
Jarmond talks a lot about striving to maintain the continuity of a program that is coming off a beating of USC and a bowl win against Boise State, but the coach who called the plays is now at Ohio State, the defensive whiz is across town and the guy in charge of it all is a rookie.
—Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times, 12 Feb. 2024
An abduction survivor herself, Gabi has assembled a team of experts — a behavioral specialist (Kelli Williams), a brilliant law student (Gabrielle Walsh), a tech whiz (Arlen Escarpeta), and a dogged investigator (Karan Oberoi) — who all have personal experience with the trauma of kidnapping.
—Kristen Baldwin, EW.com, 19 Sep. 2023
This comes after the Seattle Seahawks announced the hiring of Ravens’ defensive whiz Mike Macdonald.
—Patricia Garcia, Sacramento Bee, 2 Feb. 2024
Hemant Mishra/Mint via Getty Images Born in a small coastal town in Kerala to educator parents, Raveendran grew up a math whiz.
—Pallavi Pundir, Fortune Asia, 1 Mar. 2024
But, last month, John Burn-Murdoch, a data whiz at the Financial Times, pointed out that Britain, France, and Germany also experienced big jumps in consumer prices, and yet their consumers haven’t been as gloomy as Americans have been.
—John Cassidy, The New Yorker, 22 Jan. 2024
Apple’s decision to hire this technical whiz — a Stanford engineering Ph.D. named Marcelo Lamego — is seen as the spark that sent Masimo’s lawyers after Apple.
—Mark Gurman, Fortune, 27 Dec. 2023
For her debut album, the techno whiz turns into a dance-pop singer-songwriter, delivering downy reveries that float on as her mind drifts back to California, old friends, and ice baths in Oslo.
—Pitchfork, 12 Dec. 2023
Verb
So while the baseball is whizzing around the diamond at Oracle Park, Retodo and his crew are busy folding ground meat and sauteed vegetables into paper-thin wrappers, rolling them and then frying ’til golden.
—Linda Zavoral, The Mercury News, 27 Mar. 2024
Patients recounted bullets whizzing by in the hospital courtyard.
—Frances Robles, New York Times, 17 Mar. 2024
The sphere whizzed through the sky at unsettling speeds, then disappeared behind a grove of trees.
—Lucas Ropek / Gizmodo, Quartz, 19 Mar. 2024
In a separate video taken from behind Homa, the ball is shown whizzing over a spectator’s head before smashing against a tree just behind them.
—Ben Morse, CNN, 18 Mar. 2024
Jeff Smith was whizzing along on a snowmobile one evening a few years back when something dark appeared in front of him.
—CBS News, 6 Mar. 2024
Reports from the scene said airport employees and others fled the scene amid whizzing bullets.
—Kim Hjelmgaard, USA TODAY, 5 Mar. 2024
The show, about an hour long, whizzed by in a trance of mostly midtempo rockers without gimmicks.
—Sophia Solano, Washington Post, 14 Feb. 2024
Before the halftime show, surprise halftime show performer H.E.R. whizzed by in a golf cart, smiling wide and waved to the backup dancers who started to line up before taking the stage with Usher.
—Alex Ross, Peoplemag, 13 Feb. 2024
Noun
Fly Me to the Moon focuses on Kelly Jones (Johansson), a marketing whiz tasked with improving NASA’s public image who ends up complicating the challenging task at hand for launch director Cole Davis (Tatum).
—Ryan Gajewski, The Hollywood Reporter, 8 Apr. 2024
Jarmond talks a lot about striving to maintain the continuity of a program that is coming off a beating of USC and a bowl win against Boise State, but the coach who called the plays is now at Ohio State, the defensive whiz is across town and the guy in charge of it all is a rookie.
—Bill Plaschke, Los Angeles Times, 12 Feb. 2024
An abduction survivor herself, Gabi has assembled a team of experts — a behavioral specialist (Kelli Williams), a brilliant law student (Gabrielle Walsh), a tech whiz (Arlen Escarpeta), and a dogged investigator (Karan Oberoi) — who all have personal experience with the trauma of kidnapping.
—Kristen Baldwin, EW.com, 19 Sep. 2023
This comes after the Seattle Seahawks announced the hiring of Ravens’ defensive whiz Mike Macdonald.
—Patricia Garcia, Sacramento Bee, 2 Feb. 2024
Hemant Mishra/Mint via Getty Images Born in a small coastal town in Kerala to educator parents, Raveendran grew up a math whiz.
—Pallavi Pundir, Fortune Asia, 1 Mar. 2024
But, last month, John Burn-Murdoch, a data whiz at the Financial Times, pointed out that Britain, France, and Germany also experienced big jumps in consumer prices, and yet their consumers haven’t been as gloomy as Americans have been.
—John Cassidy, The New Yorker, 22 Jan. 2024
Apple’s decision to hire this technical whiz — a Stanford engineering Ph.D. named Marcelo Lamego — is seen as the spark that sent Masimo’s lawyers after Apple.
—Mark Gurman, Fortune, 27 Dec. 2023
For her debut album, the techno whiz turns into a dance-pop singer-songwriter, delivering downy reveries that float on as her mind drifts back to California, old friends, and ice baths in Oslo.
—Pitchfork, 12 Dec. 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'whiz.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Word History
Etymology
Verb
imitative
Noun (2)
probably by shortening & alteration
First Known Use
Verb
1582, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1
Noun (1)
1620, in the meaning defined at sense 1
Noun (2)
1914, in the meaning defined above
Phrases Containing whiz
Articles Related to whiz
Dictionary Entries Near whiz
Cite this Entry
“Whiz.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/whiz. Accessed 20 Apr. 2024.
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Kids Definition
whiz
1 of 3 verb
variants
or whizz
ˈhwiz 
ˈwiz
whizzed; whizzing
1
: to hum, buzz, or hiss like a speeding object (as an arrow or ball) passing through air
2
: to fly, pass, or move swiftly with a buzzing sound
cars whizzing by
whizzer
noun
whiz
2 of 3 noun
variants
or whizz
plural whizzes
: a humming, buzzing, or hissing sound
Etymology
Verb
probably coined in imitation of the sound of a speeding object going by
Noun
probably a shortened and altered form of wizard
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