dizzy
Americanadjective
-
dizzier,
comparative
-
dizziest
superlative
-
having a sensation of whirling and a tendency to fall; giddy; vertiginous.
-
causing giddiness or confusion.
a dizzy height.
verb (used with object)
-
dizzies,
present (3rd person singular)
-
dizzied,
past participle, past
-
dizzying
present participle
adjective
-
affected with a whirling or reeling sensation; giddy
-
mentally confused or bewildered
-
causing or tending to cause vertigo or bewilderment
-
informal foolish or flighty
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
dizzysimple
-
dizziessimple
-
have dizziedperfect
-
has dizziedperfect
-
am dizzyingprogressive
-
are dizzyingprogressive
-
is dizzyingprogressive
-
have been dizzyingperfect progressive
-
has been dizzyingperfect progressive
Past
-
dizziedsimple
-
had dizziedperfect
-
was dizzyingprogressive
-
were dizzyingprogressive
-
had been dizzyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of dizzy
First recorded before 900; Middle English dysy, Old English dysig “foolish”; cognate with Low German düsig “stupefied”
Explanation
When you're dizzy, you have a spinning or woozy sensation — you might even feel like you'l fall over. You'll probably feel dizzy for a while when you get off the whirling tea cup ride at the fair. Some people feel dizzy when they're up high, either on a ladder or at the top of a tall building or bridge. Others only get dizzy when they're coming down with the flu or after riding on the merry-go-round at the park. Another way to be dizzy is to be silly or frivolous: "I can't take him seriously, he's just so dizzy all the time." Dizzy comes from the Old English dysig, "foolish or stupid."
Vocabulary lists containing dizzy
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
It means Tottenham have moved into the dizzy heights of the top half of the table.
From BBC ● Oct. 31, 2026
"I just felt really dizzy, really nauseous, was having heart palpitations and was really hot," she says.
From BBC ● Oct. 30, 2026
In the birthplace of Venezuela's oil industry, thick black crude seeps through cracks in the earth, and the air is heavy with the smell of gas, leaving visitors dizzy.
From Barron's ● Sep. 26, 2026
Richie postponed concerts in June after feeling dizzy during a set and then checked into a hospital after a performance in August.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 16, 2026
Cassiopeia was too dizzy to swing her pigtails, so the birds finished by doing a few of the dance steps they had learned from Dr. Westminster.
From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood
“They can march around the ring as long as they want, until they are so dizzy — dizzier then they already are — that they fall down.”
From New York Times ● Apr. 28, 2019
Then again, maybe he’s just woozy from all the money he’s made since buying the club, and the thought of taller piles make him dizzier.
From Washington Times ● Aug. 29, 2018
The injections don’t change how much pain I experience, but the next day I wake up even dizzier, with the woozy sensation that my body is rocking in space.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 17, 2016
In effect, censorship created plot, and in the process yielded one of the greatest of American film genres: thirties romantic comedy, including the dizzier versions celebrated as screwball comedy.
From The New Yorker ● May 2, 2016
Puffing loudly, Harry, Ron, and Hermione climbed the tightly spiraling steps, getting dizzier and dizzier, until at last they heard the murmur of voices above them and knew they had reached the classroom.
From "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling
She was auditioning for the role of Margot, the dizziest of the sorority sisters, a woman who has deep conversations with a Chihuahua.
From New York Times ● May 10, 2023
Their conclusion: “We think we have X-rayed the dizziest — and this will amaze you, as it did us, the dirtiest — community in America.”
From Washington Post ● Jan. 9, 2016
It’s hypnotic in its empty-headed positivity, an exercise in teenybopper mythologizing that accidentally doubles as a deeply sad deconstruction of fame at its dizziest and most ephemeral.
From Slate ● Jan. 23, 2014
In early March, ARM's shares reached their highest point since the dizziest days of the dotcom boom 13 years ago, pushing its market value to $20.3bn.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 19, 2013
No longer could she feel secure on the dizziest and remotest ledges of the peaks, no longer were even the soundless deeps of sky inaccessible to man!
From Hoof and Claw by Sir Charles George Douglas Roberts
There is no dizzies, there is no cramps, there is no menopause.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 25, 2011
The number teases, dazzles the mind and even dizzies it, but that does not add up to understanding.
From Time Magazine Archive
She dizzies him with quotes from Erich Fromm.
From Time Magazine Archive
Loosely I prod the table with a fork, My mind gapes, dizzies, ceases to work...
From Poems - First Series by J. C. (John Collings) Squire
The St. Dunstan stood almost at the summit where Nob Hill slants obliquely to north and east, and Powell Street dizzies down the steep descent to North Beach and the Bay.
From The Million-Dollar Suitcase by Alice MacGowan
Inexplicably, he found himself at LaGuardia Airport, so dizzied had he been by the experience.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2026
As Jamieson Gibson-Park picked and went from the base, Lowe swerved out of his hiding spot and past a dizzied Chandler Cunningham-South.
From BBC ● Mar. 17, 2025
I felt, not for the first time that summer, dizzied by the dissonance.
From Slate ● Oct. 20, 2020
You walk through, a bit dizzied, as the lines between reality and film begin to blur.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 20, 2019
The heat in the kitchen dizzied him so that voices echoed in his ears.
From "The Heart is a Lonely Hunter" by Carson McCullers
Thinking through these differences and an individual’s unique needs and financial circumstances will help investors navigate the sometimes dizzying menu of Treasury options available.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 8, 2026
The dizzying selloff has put many bonds underwater.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 3, 2026
Rosales long dreamed of being invited to the Biennale, and the full circle nature of it, the Venice, California, to Venice, Italy, of it all, is dizzying.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 9, 2026
Salam turns this stretch of tarmac, restaurants and bars into a dizzying fairground with neon thrills and a seedy, menacing underbelly.
From BBC ● Dec. 25, 2025
The whole place filled with rustling and sniffles and sighs and cries, so much movement it was almost dizzying.
From "The Thing About Jellyfish" by Ali Benjamin
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