whodunnit

British

/ huːˈdʌnɪt /

noun

informal a novel, play, etc, concerned with a crime, usually murder

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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.

I have stopped watching mysteries on TV because I can tell whodunnit within the first 10 minutes.

From MarketWatch • Mar. 13, 2026

Set on a country estate, it toggles between the Regency Era and the present and weaves together physics, history and a whodunnit involving the poet Lord Byron.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 29, 2025

Many dead ends and a visit to the crime scene later, the women finally figured out whodunnit.

From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 28, 2025

But in Erin Lee Carr’s Hulu whodunnit documentary, "Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara," their fans' closeness began creepily bordering on something else.

From Salon • Oct. 18, 2024

Later this year, a whodunnit parody musical, produced by the team behind Phoebe Waller Bridge's Fleabag, will open on the West End.

From BBC • Apr. 24, 2024

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023