whimsy

/ˈwɪmzi/

whimsy noun: a quaint and fanciful idea; a whim; playfully odd behaviour.

Noun

whimsy (usually uncountable, plural whimsies)

(usually) A quaint and fanciful idea; a whim; playfully odd behaviour.
- […] Take heed of filling their [i.e., children's] heads with VVhimzies, and unprofitable Notions; for this vvill ſooner learn them to be malepert and proud, than ſober and humble.1663 April 27 (Gregorian calendar), John Bunyan, “Touching Parents”, in Christian Behaviour; or The Fruits of True Christianity. […], London: […] F. Smith, […], →OCLC, page 56
- These days! where e'en th' extravagance of poetry, / Is at a loss for figures to express / Men's folly, whimsies, and inconstancy, / And by a faint description makes them less.1691 February 24, Jonathan Swift, “Ode, to the Athenian Society. […]”, in Thomas Sheridan, John Nichols, editors, The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, […], new edition, volume VII, London: […]...
(usually) An impulsive, illogical or capricious character.
(countable, usually) A whim (capstan or vertical drum).
(countable, usually) A jigsaw puzzle piece that has been cut into a recognizable shape, as if on a whim; often the shape is representative of the theme of the image used for the puzzle.
- "Dori, you have to solve this puzzle!" / "Sure, right away doctor. Quality construction … clean edges. Oh, a whimsy!"2016 January 29, Krister Johnson, “One Million Saved”, in Childrens Hospital, season 7, episode 2
(countable, usually) The support that protects a finished piece as it is detached from a punty.

Verb

whimsy (third-person singular simple present whimsies, present participle whimsying, simple past and past participle whimsied)

(transitive) To fill with whimsies or whims; to make fantastic; to craze.
- A wantonneſſe in wealth, methinks I agree not with, / Tis ſuch a trouble to be married too, / And have a thouſand things of great importance, / Jewells and plates, and fooleries moleſt mee, / To have a mans brains whimſied with his wealth: […]1624 (first performance), John Fletcher, Rule a Wife and Have a Wife. A Comoedy. […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Leonard Lichfield […], published 1640, →OCLC, Act II, scene [ii], page 16

Adjective

whimsy (comparative whimsier, superlative whimsiest)

Synonym of whimsical.
- Whimsiest of the fairy brood, I cannot scold you if I would1898, Richard Hovey, Lancelot and Guenevere: A Poem in Drama, volume 1, page 39
- […] and if in a whimsy mood I choose to read the opening chapters last, and the closing chapters first, […]1926, Essie Chamberlain, Essays Old and New, page 157
Synonyms:

whimsical

whimsy meaning in Urdu and Bengali

whimsy in Urdu

دھن, خبط, خیال, ترنگ, وہم

whimsy in Bengali

খামখেয়ালি, চমকপ্রদ কল্পনা

Examples of whimsy in a sentence

It’s a lovely sequence cut too short because the show seems afraid to give itself over to romance and whimsy and wistfulness when it has wedgie jokes to deliver.2012 May 27, Nathan Rabin, “The Simpsons (Classic): ‘New Kid on the Block’ [season 4, episode 8; originally aired 12 November 1992]”, in...
[…] but in effect it seemed to have heaps of Amelie-style whimsy but no deeper unity or coherence.2024 July 26, Arifa Akbar, “Paris Olympics opening ceremony review – soaring ambition deflated by patchy delivery”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:

Synonyms of whimsy

whimsical

Forms of whimsy

Noun
plural	whimsies
alternative form	whimsey
Verb
third-person singular present	whimsies
present participle	whimsying
past participle	whimsied
past	whimsied
Adjective
comparative	whimsier
superlative	whimsiest

Plural of whimsy: whimsies

Origin of whimsy

Probably from whims + -y. Related to whim-wham, whim.

Words formed from whimsy

Phrases with whimsy

whimsy maxxing

Words that rhyme with whimsy

Questions about whimsy

What does whimsy mean?: Whimsy means a quaint and fanciful idea; a whim; playfully odd behaviour.
What is whimsy in Urdu?: Whimsy in Urdu is دھن, خبط, خیال. See Whimsy meaning in Urdu.
How do you use whimsy in a sentence?: It’s a lovely sequence cut too short because the show seems afraid to give itself over to romance and whimsy and wistfulness when it has wedgie jokes to deliver.
What part of speech is whimsy?: Whimsy can be a noun, a verb or an adjective.
How do you pronounce whimsy?: Whimsy is pronounced /ˈwɪmzi/.
What is the plural of whimsy?: The plural of whimsy is whimsies.

Words near whimsy in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: whimsy (page history and authors); whimsy (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); whimsy (Bengali Wiktionary) (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: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-whimsy.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-whimsy.wav.

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