noun, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Noun

1. 1
   A fanciful impulse, or sudden change of idea. countable, uncountable

   "Let ev’ry Man enjoy his whim; / What’s He to Me, or I to him?"

2. 2
   A bird, the Eurasian wigeon.
3. 3
   Initialism of warm-hot intergalactic medium. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism, uncountable
4. 4
   an odd or fanciful or capricious idea wordnet
5. 5
   A large capstan or vertical drum turned by horse power or steam power, for raising ore or water, etc., from mines, or for other purposes countable, uncountable

Show 1 more definition

6. 6
   a sudden desire wordnet

Verb

1. 1
   To be seized with a whim; to be capricious. intransitive, rare

Synonyms

All synonyms

capricecapricenotionwhimsylarkaberration

Example

More examples

"Father was generous enough to indulge my every whim."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Clipping of whim-wham.

Etymology 2

Compare whimbrel.

Related phrases

on a whimwhim ginwhim shafteurasian wigeon

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.