whiplash
Syllables: whip·lash/ˈwɪpˌlæʃ/
whiplash noun: the lash of a whip.
Noun
whiplash (countable and uncountable, plural whiplashes)
- The lash of a whip.
- An injury to the upper spine connected to a violent jerk of the head in either a backward or forward or side to side direction, resembling the motion of a whip.
- Of the nine staff in the third coach, most had been having a break, drinking tea or reading. One suffered a fractured skull, another a fractured shoulder. All were either thrown along or across the coach, sustaining cuts, bruising and whiplash injuries.2026 March 18, Greg Morse, “1996 crash driving freight reforms”, in RAIL, number 1057, page 50
- Synonyms:
- whiplash injury, whiplash-associated disorder
- An abrupt and unexpected change, or the resulting feeling of shock.
- tonal whiplash
- Some parents, feeling too hurt by the push-off or taking their teenager’s rejections too personally, choose to make themselves unavailable. In some ways it does feel better to avoid episodes of emotional whiplash.2014, Lisa Damour, “The Emotional Whiplash of Parenting a Teenager”, in Motherlode: Adventures In Parenting
- Synonyms:
- switchback, zigzag course
Verb
whiplash (third-person singular simple present whiplashes, present participle whiplashing, simple past and past participle whiplashed)
- To jerk back and forth; to buffet.
- […] Ms. Kennedy has been whiplashed by assertions that she is at once protected and presumptuous.2008 December 23, Nicholas Confessore, “Resistance to Kennedy Grows among Democrats”, in The New York Times
- To lash as if with a whip.
- After a while, he let go of my hand in order to protect his own face from being whiplashed by the low branches.1990, V.C. Andrews, My Sweet Audrina, →ISBN, page 98
whiplash meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
whiplash in Hindi
- व्हिपलैश, व्हीपलैश, व्हिप्लैश
whiplash in Tamil
- கழுத்துச் சுளுக்கு
whiplash in Marathi
- व्हिप्लॅश, व्हिप्लाश
whiplash in Urdu
- وائپلش, وائپلاش
More languagesFewer languages
- whiplash in Bengali
- হুইপল্যাশ, হুইপ্ল্যাশ
- whiplash in Malayalam
- വിപ്ളാഷ്, വിപ്പിളാഷ്
- whiplash in Punjabi
- ਵਿੱਪਲੈਸ਼
- whiplash in Gujarati
- વ્હીપ્લાશ
- whiplash in Odia
- ହ୍ୱିପ୍ଲାଶ୍, ହ୍ୱିପ୍ଲାଶ
- whiplash in Nepali
- ह्विप्लास, ह्विप्ल्यास, ह्विप्लाश
Examples of whiplash in a sentence
- Next thing I know, they were drafting me and sending me off to Fort Sill for basic training. Talk about whiplash.
- All were either thrown along or across the coach, sustaining cuts, bruising and whiplash injuries.
- Biomechanical studies have suggested facet impingement of the meniscoid (synovial fold) as a whiplash injury mechansim.
Synonyms of whiplash
- whiplash injury
- whiplash-associated disorder
- switchback
- zigzag course
Forms of whiplash
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | whiplashes |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | whiplashes |
| present participle | whiplashing |
| past participle | whiplashed |
| past | whiplashed |
Origin of whiplash
From whip + lash.
Words formed from whiplash
Questions about whiplash
- What does whiplash mean?
- Whiplash means the lash of a whip.
- What is whiplash in Hindi?
- Whiplash in Hindi is व्हिपलैश, व्हीपलैश, व्हिप्लैश. See Whiplash meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is whiplash?
- Whiplash can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce whiplash?
- Whiplash is pronounced /ˈwɪpˌlæʃ/.
- What is the plural of whiplash?
- The plural of whiplash is whiplashes.
Words near whiplash in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: whiplash (page history and authors); whiplash (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); whiplash (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); whiplash (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); whiplash (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); whiplash (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); whiplash (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); whiplash (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); whiplash (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); whiplash (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); whiplash (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-whiplash.wav.
Cite this entry: “whiplash.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/whiplash. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.