dun dun dun
UK/ˈdʌn ˌdʌn ˈdʌn/
dun dun dun interjection: used as a dramatic pause, or to emphasize that something is frightening, thrilling, etc.
Interjection
- Used as a dramatic pause, or to emphasize that something is frightening, thrilling, etc.
- I am not going to tell you the exact locations of my stops, but my final destination (dun dun dun) is London, England. It is there that I will figure out my life purpose.2006, H. M. Leathem, chapter 3, in W.T.F.?: What Is Wrong with Tom Faerie, Lincoln, Neb.: iUniverse, →ISBN, page 22
- "All right—dun, dun, dun! Time to get measured, hon." Luke tried to play off the seriousness of my weekly face-to-face with my own potential unworthiness to be a model with this little bit, but it made me feel even worse, thinking about how many empty calories in champagne and vodka I'd slurped...2007, Amanda Kerlin, Phil Oh, chapter 5, in Secrets of the Model Dorm, New York, N.Y.: Washington Square Press, Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 53
Origin of dun dun dun
An onomatopoeic representation of a three-note dramatic sting (“short musical phrase”). See the Wikipedia article for details of its origin.
Words that rhyme with dun dun dun
48 more rhymesFewer rhymes
- rerun
- stun
- nun
- shun
- 'un
- Gunn
- jump the gun
- none
- outrun
- overdone
- begun
- dun
- fun
- hon
- pun
- speedrun
- thon
- undone
- unspun
- verdun
- winter sun
- 1
- 101
- 26+6=1
- cun
- everyone
- hard-won
- have one's mind about one
- hot cross bun
- marble run
- misdone
- mun
- Munn
- old one
- one hundred and one
- one thousand and one
- organ gun
- outdone
- outgun
- over and done
- quaker gun
- redone
- respun
- rewon
- snatch and run
- spun
- steam gun
- temperature gun
Questions about dun dun dun
- What does dun dun dun mean?
- Dun dun dun means used as a dramatic pause, or to emphasize that something is frightening, thrilling, etc.
- What part of speech is dun dun dun?
- Dun dun dun is an interjection.
- How do you pronounce dun dun dun?
- Dun dun dun is pronounced /ˈdʌn ˌdʌn ˈdʌn/ (UK).
Words near dun dun dun in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: dun dun dun (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-dun dun dun.ogg.
Cite this entry: “dun dun dun.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/dun_dun_dun. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.