whodunit

UK/ˌhuːˈdʌn.ɪt/

whodunit noun: a novel or drama concerning a crime (usually a murder) in which a detective follows clues to determine the perpetrator.

Noun

whodunit (plural whodunits)

A novel or drama concerning a crime (usually a murder) in which a detective follows clues to determine the perpetrator.
- Actually, an whodunit is a mystery story. The hero is generally a detective, although sometimes he is a gentleman (apparently a mild mannered worm) who sallies forth at night to become Public Enemy No. One of Crime. Otherwise, the formula is exactly the same as that of the Cliff-hanger and follows...1946, Josephina Niggli, Pointers on radio writing, Boston: The Writer, Inc., page 25
Synonyms:

detective novel, detective story, mystery story

بھید, راز

plural	whodunits
alternative form	whodunnit

Coined by critic Donald Gordon in 1930. An alteration and univerbation of who done it? with ellipsis of has.

What does whodunit mean?: Whodunit means a novel or drama concerning a crime (usually a murder) in which a detective follows clues to determine the perpetrator.
What is whodunit in Urdu?: Whodunit in Urdu is بھید, راز. See Whodunit meaning in Urdu.
What part of speech is whodunit?: Whodunit is a noun.
How do you pronounce whodunit?: Whodunit is pronounced /ˌhuːˈdʌn.ɪt/ (UK).
What is the plural of whodunit?: The plural of whodunit is whodunits.

Adapted from Wiktionary: whodunit (page history and authors); whodunit (Urdu 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-au-whodunit.ogg.

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