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:
Carmen Schober, the profile’s author, ignored the way members of Schmidt’s online forum, Skinni Société, commiserated about their hair loss and inability to stand without getting dizzy.
From Salon ● Aug. 5, 2026
If using a fan, drink water, avoid directing it continuously at the face while sleeping, and stop using it if it makes you feel hotter, dizzy or unwell.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 29, 2026
Weeks before falling severely ill, he consulted the tool about recurring dizzy spells and "bouts of blood pressure instability".
From BBC ● Jul. 23, 2026
I felt dizzy and short of breath before sprawling out on our mattress, which was still covered in plastic.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2026
My head dizzy, I clutched the edge of my dresser.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
“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
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
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
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 was dizzied with terror, no ground beneath me; it was crazy-making, endless.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 11, 2023
I felt, not for the first time that summer, dizzied by the dissonance.
From Slate ● Oct. 20, 2020
Bertans dizzied his defenders, caught passes and turned them into three points so often that Sixers wing Mike Scott decided to face guard him 22 feet from the rim.
From Washington Post ● Dec. 5, 2019
As I cling tightly to the scarecrow’s legs, I look down, and I am dizzied by vertigo.
From "Challenger Deep" by Neal Shusterman
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
The company has tens of thousands of pickup locations across the country -- even in remote villages -- and sells a dizzying range of products, from medicine to children's goods.
From Barron's ● Jul. 31, 2026
Thirty-year-old Bardella has had a dizzying career up the RN ranks, but he was always measured about his prospects of becoming president.
From BBC ● Jul. 10, 2026
It bills its more than 50 locations in 13 states as “highway oases,” and has plans to open more outposts offering its jerky, fudge and dizzying array of beaver-themed products.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 9, 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.
