Word.ws English Dictionary

howcatchem

howcatchem noun: a mystery novel or drama which begins by showing or describing the commission of the crime, generally revealing the perpetrator's identity to the audience, then shows or describes how the detective proves the perpetrator's guilt.

Noun

howcatchem (plural howcatchems)

  1. A mystery novel or drama which begins by showing or describing the commission of the crime, generally revealing the perpetrator's identity to the audience, then shows or describes how the detective proves the perpetrator's guilt.
    • Columbo was not so much a whodunit as it was a "howcatchem" — the fun was in watching Columbo corner the murderer, and we never tired of the game.2002, Marc Robinson, Brought to You in Living Color: 75 Years of Great Moments in Television & Radio from NBC, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN

Forms of howcatchem

pluralhowcatchems

Origin of howcatchem

From how + catch + 'em, modelled on whodunit.

Questions about howcatchem

What does howcatchem mean?
Howcatchem means a mystery novel or drama which begins by showing or describing the commission of the crime, generally revealing the perpetrator's identity to the audience, then shows or describes how the detective proves the perpetrator's guilt.
What part of speech is howcatchem?
Howcatchem is a noun.
What is the plural of howcatchem?
The plural of howcatchem is howcatchems.

Words near howcatchem in the dictionary

  1. howay
  2. howaya
  3. howbe
  4. howbeit
  5. howbout
  6. howcatchem
  7. howcatchems
  8. Howchin
  9. howda
  10. howdah
  11. howdahless

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: howcatchem (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:

Cite this entry: “howcatchem.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/howcatchem. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.