whiz
1 Americanverb (used without object)
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whizzes,
present (3rd person singular)
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whizzed,
past participle, past
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whizzing
present participle
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to make a humming, buzzing, or hissing sound, as an object passing swiftly through the air.
-
to move or rush with such a sound.
The angry hornets whizzed by in a cloud.
verb (used with object)
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whizzes,
present (3rd person singular)
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whizzed,
past participle, past
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whizzing
present participle
-
to cause to whiz.
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to treat with a whizzer.
noun
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Informal. a person who is quite good at a particular activity, in a certain field, etc..
She's a whiz at math.
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the sound of a whizzing object.
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a swift movement producing such a sound.
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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whizsimple
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whizzessimple
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have whizzedperfect
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has whizzedperfect
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am whizzingprogressive
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are whizzingprogressive
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is whizzingprogressive
-
have been whizzingperfect progressive
-
has been whizzingperfect progressive
Past
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whizzedsimple
-
had whizzedperfect
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was whizzingprogressive
-
were whizzingprogressive
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had been whizzingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of whiz1
1540–50; imitative; cf. fizz
Origin of whiz2
By shortening
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's not suddenly going to whiz past and you'll miss it. It's worth waiting around just in case the clouds move on."
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2026
Plus: Uploading your blood work to AI, the whiz kids who dropped out of college, a drone’s unlikely inspiration and more.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 5, 2026
As four astronauts whiz toward a flyby of the Moon, looking out for them are mission control experts using cutting-edge technology and lessons learned from the Apollo program 50 years ago.
From Barron's ● Apr. 4, 2026
For the first coaching hire in more than a decade, the Seahawks were convinced that 36-year-old defensive whiz Mike Macdonald could return them to the top of the sport.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 5, 2026
He’s the math whiz, the kind of student that schools like MIT and Caltech and the University of Waterloo attract by the hundreds.
From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell
Leibowitz, who died May 6 at age 89, was a forerunner of the so-called quants, math whizzes who would become major factors in financial markets two decades later.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
The actual act of mining involves computer whizzes trying to solve a numerical puzzle; the first miner to solve it gets the newly created Bitcoin.
From Slate ● Mar. 28, 2025
I'm not sure if it's more alarming that he said it or that the Times and the allegedly sophisticated financial whizzes in the audience all thought it was charming and reassuring.
From Salon ● Oct. 16, 2024
When we meet outside his Koreatown apartment on a fall evening, he whizzes down the parking lot ramp and brakes right next to me.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 28, 2023
Superstar lawyers and math whizzes and software entrepreneurs appear at first blush to lie outside ordinary experience.
From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell
Someone got a haircut as cars whizzed past.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 18, 2026
But he had not accounted for those Sunderland-supporting runners who were not so thrilled to see him as they whizzed past.
From BBC ● Dec. 14, 2025
We made it to the top, whizzed down the other side, passed the test—and passed it again and again, all the way across the country, through the agonizingly steep hills of western Maine.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Nov. 8, 2025
Their mission was clear the instant those giant buses whizzed past adoring thousands on downtown streets and emptied a group of tearful hugging players into a roaring Dodger Stadium for their first-ever November celebration.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 23, 2025
I slip my feet into my shoes, slapping at the mosquitoes that have already whizzed into the tent.
From "Endangered" by Eliot Schrefer
Finding more of them could help scientists "understand how galaxies form and how many black holes are whizzing around," Stein said.
From Science Daily ● Aug. 6, 2026
The pair continued to go toe-to-toe, but when the tie-break arrived it was Zverev who raised the intensity, whizzing through seven points without reply to take the opener.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
A bizarre pursuit unfolded along the residential streets of Oceanside this week as a helicopter and half a dozen sheriff’s patrol cars chased a teen whizzing away from them on an electric dirt bike.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 1, 2026
Cars were whizzing by, so I had to stop every few feet.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 25, 2026
The sound of other vehicles whizzing by fills the cab, and G’ma peers over at Scoob.
From "Clean Getaway" by Nic Stone
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
