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)
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dizzies,
present (3rd person singular)
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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
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dizzysimple
-
dizziessimple
-
have dizziedperfect
-
has dizziedperfect
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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:
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
“He was disoriented, confused, dizzy, well before he collapsed. ... Matthew was demonstrating signs of a problem well before he collapsed, and they did nothing.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 4, 2026
"After a set and a half, I just couldn't feel well and was dizzy and seeing spots and couldn't recover," he said.
From BBC ● Sep. 3, 2026
Feeling dizzy and unwell after cycling to work in Japan's punishing summer heat, warehouse worker Isao Tabuchi headed for his company's newest acquisition: a refrigerator for humans.
From Barron's ● Aug. 25, 2026
I felt dizzy on my feet and steadied myself for a moment.
From "Rump: The (Fairly) True Story of Rumpelstilskin" by Liesl Shurtliff
“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
Wilbur had been feeling dizzier and dizzier through this long, complimentary speech.
From "Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White
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
He was seated on the dizziest and most splendid eminence which it was possible for human grandeur to obtain.
From Seekers after God by F. W. (Frederic William) Farrar
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
The whirl so dizzies, she breathes short; The serpent spirals seem to fold Laocöon-like about her limbs.
From Punch, or the London Charivari, Volume 104, January 7, 1893 by Sir F. C. (Francis Cowley) Burnand
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
Keely Hodgkinson stood with her eyes and mouth wide open in astonishment, hands fixed either side of a head dizzied by two laps that had changed everything.
From BBC ● May 22, 2024
Waves of attacks pounded down on Paris St.-Germain, now dizzied and wearied.
From New York Times ● May 3, 2024
I was dizzied with terror, no ground beneath me; it was crazy-making, endless.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2023
At Easter high mass I was dizzied by the mucous perfume of white flowers at the celebration of rebirth.
From "Hunger of Memory" by Richard Rodriguez
It’s a dizzying thought, the comet from Norristown sharing space with Man City stars like the Norwegian Thunder God Erling Haaland.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 24, 2026
The brilliance was provided by Razaullah, who produced a dizzying knock to breathe life into the third Test and lift the spirits of Pakistan supporters everywhere.
From BBC ● Sep. 11, 2026
Your first-class ticket could soon be second class as U.S. airlines add to their dizzying roster of seating options.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026
Not all break free of the eternal wheel of samsara, and each is caught in its dizzying spin at times.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2026
He must be used to the dizzying excitement on the other end of the phone.
From "Starfish" by Akemi Dawn Bowman
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.
