one-hit wonders
one-hit wonders is the plural of one-hit wonder.
Meaning of one-hit wonder
Noun
one-hit wonder (plural one-hit wonders)
- A recording artist known for only one hit song, especially after failing at subsequent attempts at success.
- Eleven years ago, Arrested Development became one of Southern hip-hop's first crossover successes with “Tennessee,” a wistful, bohemian-influenced song about the scars of history. But the group was a one-hit wonder.2003 September 21, Jon Caramanica, “Music: When Rap Sounds Anything but Urban”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 31 Jul 2019, retrieved 03 Aug 2009
- The hit song itself, rather than the musical artist.
- A person or group known for achieving only a single major accomplishment.
- The European company is no one-hit wonder. The company has another best seller in its J-class car, sold as a Vauxhall Cavalier.1990 February 19, S. C. Gwynne, “Two Sides of a Giant”, in TIME, archived from the original on 15 Dec 2008
- An instance of achieving a high from the first hit.
Questions about one-hit wonders
- What is one-hit wonders the plural of?
- One-hit wonders is the plural of one-hit wonder.
Words near one-hit wonders in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: one-hit wonders (page history and authors); one-hit wonder (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.
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Cite this entry: “one-hit wonders.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/one-hit_wonders. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.
