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• slam dunk
  slam dunk

  noun

  a particularly forceful, often dramatic dunk shot.
• slam-dunk
  slam-dunk

  verb (used with object)

  to dunk (the ball) with great force.

slam dunk

¹ American  

noun

• slam dunks
  plural

1. Basketball. a particularly forceful, often dramatic dunk shot.

2. Slang. something regarded as certain to occur or be accomplished, typically something desirable that requires little further effort.

   The election is starting to look like a slam dunk for our side.

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slam-dunk ² American  

[slam-duhngk] / ˈslæmˌdʌŋk /

verb (used with object)

1. Basketball. to dunk (the ball) with great force.

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slam dunk British  

noun

1. basketball a scoring shot in which a player jumps up and forces the ball down through the basket

2. informal a task so easy that success in it is deemed a certainty

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verb

1. basketball to jump up and force (a ball) through a basket

slam dunk Idioms  

1. A forceful, dramatic move, as in That indictment was a slam dunk if ever there was one. This expression is also often put as a verb, slam-dunk, meaning “make a forceful move against someone,” as in This is a great chance for us to slam-dunk the opposition. The idiom comes from basketball, where it refers to a dramatic shot in which the ball is thrust into the basket from above the rim. It was transferred to other activities from about 1980 on.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• slam dunker
  noun

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• slam dunks
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of slam dunk

First recorded in 1975–80

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

slam dunk slam-dunk

But hitting the $1 trillion goal is far from a slam dunk.

From MarketWatch ● Aug. 17, 2026

The states’ lawsuit offers coherent concerns about the deal’s impact on the film and cable TV marketplaces, but it doesn’t look like a slam dunk, according to antitrust experts.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026

His most famous moment came in 1997, when he became the runner-up to Kobe Bryant in the slam dunk contest.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 27, 2026

Fox’s legal theory is not frivolous, but it is far from a slam dunk.

From Slate ● Mar. 11, 2026

Maybe you can bring a basketball with you on your first mission and make the first slam dunk in space.”

From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas

Aside from the Northern Irishman there were few moments of sparkle on show elsewhere among the potential contenders, albeit Justin Rose's slam-dunk hole-in-one on the par-three ninth was an obvious exception.

From BBC ● Aug. 30, 2026

Trades that would be slam-dunk criminal cases if they were mapped onto the stock market are, in prediction markets, either a little bit fishy or the mark of a savvy trader.

From Slate ● Apr. 24, 2026

But she added, “I don’t think it’s a slam-dunk prosecution.”

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 7, 2026

The group may still do OK, and some of the individual stocks may even kill it, but the slam-dunk, set-it-and-forget-it, run-circles-around-the-market era of the Mag Seven is gone with the wind.

From Barron's ● Mar. 5, 2026

I grabbed her at her waist, lifted her so she could slam-dunk the eight-foot rim.

From "Burning Blue" by Paul Griffin

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