What does "whoosh" mean?

A breathy sound like that of an object passing at high speed.

What is a synonym for "whoosh"?

Common synonyms include: hiss, assibilate, assibilation, buzz, effervesce, effervescence.

//ʍʊʃ// intj, noun, verb, slang

intj, noun, verb, slang ·Common ·High school level

Noun

1
A breathy sound like that of an object passing at high speed.
"The snow burst through the trees with no warning but a last-second whoosh of sound, a two-story wall of white and Chris Rudolph’s piercing cry: “Avalanche! Elyse!”"
2
the noise produced by the sudden rush of a fluid (a gas or liquid) wordnet
3
A homicide by shooting. Multicultural-London-English, slang
4
A gun. Multicultural-London-English, slang

Verb

1
To make a breathy sound like a whoosh. intransitive
2
gush or squirt out wordnet
3
To pass by quickly. ambitransitive
4
move with a whooshing sound wordnet
5
To pass by quickly.; To happen while bypassing someone's detailed awareness, to have someone miss the point. ambitransitive, figuratively, intransitive

Show 3 more definitions

6
move with a sibilant sound wordnet
7
To cause to pass quickly. transitive
"Twitter whooshed your tweet away before I read all of it lmao."
8
To kill by gun, to shoot. Multicultural-London-English, slang, transitive
"Man do it for the team Kick him and swing him on landing The olders are whooshed Brass and bruck I promise all of them has been (dun out 'ere)"

Intj

1
Imitates anything passing by quickly and more or less close.
"I was batting when Nikki sent down a lollipop and whoosh, what a shot."
2
Indicating that somebody has missed the point (i.e. it went over their head). sarcastic

"I hear the buzz of a fan, the drip of the faucet, the hum of the fridge, the tick of the clock, the whoosh of cars passing by the house."

Of imitative origin.

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