whinny
Americanverb (used without object)
verb (used with object)
noun
verb
-
(of a horse) to neigh softly or gently
-
to make a sound resembling a neigh, such as a laugh
noun
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
whinnysimple
-
whinniessimple
-
have whinniedperfect
-
has whinniedperfect
-
am whinnyingprogressive
-
are whinnyingprogressive
-
is whinnyingprogressive
-
have been whinnyingperfect progressive
-
has been whinnyingperfect progressive
Past
-
whinniedsimple
-
had whinniedperfect
-
was whinnyingprogressive
-
were whinnyingprogressive
-
had been whinnyingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of whinny
1520–30; imitative; compare earlier whrinny, Latin hinnīre
Explanation
A cow moos, a dog barks, a rooster crows, and a horse whinnies. Whinny is both a noun and a verb. As a noun, it's the sound a horse makes. As a verb, it's the horse making the sound. A familiar word with the same meaning as whinny is neigh. When you visit your cousins on their farm, the rooster wakes you up every morning with his crowing. The cow moos to let you know she’s ready to be milked. The dog’s barking alerts you that the tractor is coming down the drive. And it’s the horse’s whinny that tells you he’s ready to go for a ride. Every time you hear that whinny, you’ve got to saddle up!
Vocabulary lists containing whinny
Our Town
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The Sea of Monsters
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Black Beauty
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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:
"We now finally know how the two fundamental frequencies that make up a whinny are produced by horses," says author Elodie Briefer of the University of Copenhagen.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 25, 2026
Welcoming visitors to the thatched-roof cottage she and her late husband bought soon after the war, she whimsically tweaks the ears of a mechanical horse named Dobin, making him whinny.
From Seattle Times ● May 30, 2024
She’s bonded with the horse she’s ridden for nearly two years, saying he’ll whinny every time she walks into the barn.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 3, 2021
Horses whinny in horror at the mention of her name.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 27, 2021
The horses whinny and neigh as the driver navigates the sharp turns and narrow lanes of the Imperial City of Trianon.
From "The Belles" by Dhonielle Clayton
Yes, he neighs and whinnies and you can ride him and, as Woody notes, he gallops like the wind.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 17, 2026
Horses, however, do not completely follow this pattern, since their whinnies include unexpectedly high frequencies.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 25, 2026
The horses burst into a gallop at the machine's approach, their high-pitched whinnies rising into the dry air.
From Fox News ● Aug. 18, 2021
The movie takes off when Charley discovers the local track and meets a pretty quarter horse named Lean on Pete, whose velvety brown coat and barely audible whinnies become a balm for the lonely teenager.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 13, 2018
Low moos and whinnies from outside, the buzz of gossip, the clatter of heels on the cobblestones.
From "Bone Gap" by Laura Ruby
"When I actually came to the field at the start he actually whinnied at me. He was crying out for help."
From BBC ● Mar. 13, 2026
After the Jets’ first three-and-out, I neighed and whinnied like a horse.
From New York Times ● Dec. 12, 2021
And when his feat was thus complete – he’d won the Triple Crown, He heard the brays and whinnied praise for garnering renown.
From Washington Post ● Jul. 5, 2018
Li’l Sebastian Played by: A beautiful angel who has come to Earth in the body of a miniature horse Money quote: Remember that time he whinnied?
From Time ● Jan. 14, 2015
Catelyn's horse whinnied and backed away a step, but Brienne moved between the brothers, her own blade in hand.
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
Their baying and whinnying was interrupted every few minutes Saturday night by the piercing roar of engines from a car race on the other side of the fairgrounds.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 11, 2022
The cool girls are “horse girls” who gallop around the schoolyard neighing and whinnying, behavior that in America, I can report firsthand, rarely qualifies as anything remotely resembling cool.
From New York Times ● Mar. 25, 2022
Just outside its doors sits Jackson Square, with a statue of Andrew Jackson tipping his hat on a whinnying horse, which I looked out upon every day as a teen-age employee of CC’s Coffee House.
From The New Yorker ● Aug. 12, 2019
The forecast was calling for rain the next day, an element as necessary for all this — the flowering plant life, the whinnying animal life — as is the sun.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 29, 2018
Leo felt like whinnying and stomping his hooves, too.
From "Blood of Olympus" by Rick Riordan
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.
