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• wisp
  wisp

  noun

  a handful or small bundle of straw, hay, or the like.
• WISP
  WISP

  acronym

  Wireless Information Service Provider: an internet service provider set up to deal with and deliver internet services to clients through wireless access points

wisp

American  

[wisp] / wɪsp /

noun

• wisps
  plural

1. a handful or small bundle of straw, hay, or the like.

2. any thin tuft, lock, mass, etc..

   wisps of hair.

3. a thin puff or streak, as of smoke; slender trace.

4. a person or thing that is small, delicate, or barely discernible.

   a mere wisp of a lad; a wisp of a frown.

5. a whisk broom.

6. Chiefly British Dialect.

   1. a pad or twist of straw, as used to rub down a horse.

   2. a twisted bit of straw used as a torch.

7. a will-o'-the-wisp or ignis fatuus.

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verb (used with object)

1. to twist into a wisp.

wisp ¹ British  

/ wɪsp /

noun

1. a thin, light, delicate, or fibrous piece or strand, such as a streak of smoke or a lock of hair

2. a small bundle, as of hay or straw

3. anything slender and delicate

   a wisp of a girl

4. a mere suggestion or hint

5. a flock of birds, esp snipe

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verb

1. to move or act like a wisp

2. dialect (tr) to twist into a wisp

3. (tr) to groom (a horse) with a wisp of straw, etc

WISP ² British  

/ wɪsp /

acronym

1. Wireless Information Service Provider: an internet service provider set up to deal with and deliver internet services to clients through wireless access points

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• wisplike
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• wisps
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of wisp

1300–50; Middle English wisp, wips; akin to wipe

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Explanation

A wisp is a thin bit or thread of something. Even after you put out a campfire, there may be little wisps of smoke in the air above it. Tiny pieces of hair escaping your ponytail are wisps, and tufts of clouds or fog are also wisps. A more figurative kind of wisp, like a wisp of memory or sadness, is just the barest snippet of emotion. A wisp of a child is a tiny girl or boy, and a wisp of hay is used to dry a horse — this is actually the original, 14th century meaning of wisp, related to the Swedish visp, "bundle of hay."

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

wisp WISP wisps

In his 2018 Times review, critic Justin Chang called it “a delightful, teasing wisp of a tale.”

From Los Angeles Times ● May 12, 2026

The remark carries a delicate wisp of rueful irony.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 2, 2025

I float cucumber slices in my water and I swear like I feel like I'm getting a little wisp of a spa experience in my otherwise non luxurious life.

From Salon ● Jan. 20, 2024

Breathing in a light wisp of this aromatic elixir takes me back to my Boy Scout campouts, cooking on an open fire and roasting marshmallows.

From Seattle Times ● Nov. 21, 2023

She took time to push a stray wisp of hair under the elastic of her hairnet.

From "Franny and Zooey" by J. D. Salinger

Like the HP pushpin, Intel’s WISP, or Wireless Identification and Sensing Platform, will include a variety of gauges, but it will also draw energy from the radio waves emitted by long-range radio-frequency ID chip readers.

From Scientific American ● May 1, 2011

Distinguished by a red-tiled facade and paper lanterns hanging overhead, the shrine had offering cups arranged in rows on a crimson table and a bronze urn spouting wisps of incense.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 6, 2026

The enormous structure appears far more chaotic and turbulent than astronomers expected, with huge wisps of gas and dust extending high above and below the disk.

From Science Daily ● May 12, 2026

Lady Gaga embraced her "Mayhem" era, rocking a high-necked sleeveless black feather gown from Matieres Fecales that trailed behind her in wisps of tulle.

From Barron's ● Feb. 2, 2026

Save for a few wisps of time-worn text and a bit of sharp-edged stone, little is left on this earth that tells the gladiatrix’s story.

From Salon ● Nov. 26, 2024

Sometimes open leads of water in all directions were wreathed with wisps of frost smoke as the water began to freeze, and Shackleton commented that the effect resembled the smoke from a prairie fire.

From "Shipwreck at the Bottom of the World" by Jennifer Armstrong

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