noun
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a sudden, passing, and often fanciful idea; impulsive or irrational thought
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a horse-drawn winch formerly used in mining to lift ore or water
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of whim
First recorded in 1635–45; short for whim-wham
Explanation
A whim is an odd or fanciful idea, something kooky you suddenly decide to do, like dress up like a chicken or drive to Vegas. A whim can be a sudden impulse or a change of mind, like if you go shopping for school clothes but instead buy a pink cowboy hat. Whim is a shortened version of the equally silly sounding whim wham which means "fanciful object," like a tiny snow globe that plays "Hava Nagila." If you go for a drive on a whim, you could wind up anywhere, perhaps even back to the store to return that snow globe.
Vocabulary lists containing whim
List 6
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Wonder
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100 SAT words Beginning with W,X,Y, and Z
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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 they can catch casual shoppers who "pop their head around the door" and decide on a whim to get their child vaccinated.
From BBC ● Aug. 3, 2026
On a whim, Joe sends a good-natured $200.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
Institutional judgment becomes meaningless when operational directives can be rewritten on a whim overnight.
From Salon ● Jul. 21, 2026
Ojai has long been home to Theosophists, avant-gardists, potters and naturalists joining other outsiders and mystics with a whim for wonder.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 23, 2026
Then, seemingly on a whim, he even bowed to Mimi.
From "A Place to Belong" by Cynthia Kadohata
Naomi was accustomed to Lisa-Kaindé’s whims long before they became professional artists.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
If you bet money on whims and hunches, you’ll pull it right back out based on gut feelings, too.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
It’s just the latest sign that the launch of a whole ecosystem of ETFs has done little to buttress bitcoin against the whims of mercurial investors.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 30, 2026
This makes it sensitive to the whims of the sector.
From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026
She had heard of a religious community in the Netherlands—the Labadists—whose members gave up all material possessions to live simply, away from the whims and fashions of public life.
From "The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian's Art Changed Science" by Joyce Sidman
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.
