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Definitions: Whimsy |
WhimsyNoun1. A whimsical idea; "the theatrical notion of disguise is associated with disaster in his stories". 2. The trait of acting more from whim or caprice than from reason or judgment. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "whimsy" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1856. (references) |
Synonyms: WhimsySynonyms: arbitrariness (n), capriciousness (n), flightiness (n), notion (n), whim (n), whimsey (n), whimsicality (n). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Caprice | Noun: caprice, fancy, humor; whim, whimsy, whimsey, whimwham; crotchet, capriccio, quirk, freak, maggot, fad, vagary, prank, fit, flimflam, escapade, boutade, wild-goose chase; capriciousness; Adjective: kink. |
Desire | Desideratum; want; (requirement); "a consummation devoutly to be wished "; attraction, magnet, allurement, fancy, temptation, seduction, fascination, prestige, height of one's ambition, idol; whim, whimsy, whimsey; maggot; hobby, hobby-horse. |
Imagination | Conceit, maggot, figment, myth, dream, vision, shadow, chimera; phantasm, phantasy; fantasy, fancy; whim, whimsey, whimsy; vagary, rhapsody, romance, gest, geste, extravaganza; air drawn dagger, bugbear, nightmare. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Whimsy |
| English words defined with "whimsy": Whimseys, Whimsies. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Whimsy" is also a word in the following language with the English translation in parentheses. Russian (whim). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Since Angel lost his soul, he's regained his sense of whimsy. (Buffy the Vampire Slayer; writing credit: Doreen Spicer) Oh, Professor, you're full of whimsy. (Horse Feathers; writing credit: Will B. Johnstone; Bert Kalmar) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| "Whimsy" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 92.86% of the time. "Whimsy" is used about 28 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 92.86% | 26 | 68,323 |
| Adjective (general or positive) | 7.14% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 28 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "whimsy": whimsy-whamsy. | |
Ending with "whimsy": gothic-whimsy. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
whimsy | 34 |
wade whimsy | 11 |
font whimsy | 7 |
heavy icg whimsy | 4 |
cake whimsy | 4 |
icg whimsy | 3 |
garden whimsy | 2 |
whimsy wood | 2 |
design whimsy | 2 |
whimsy wizard | 2 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "whimsy"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Albanian | trill (caprice, crotchet, device, deviltry, fad, fancy, fantasy, freak, kink, phantasy, vagary, wantonness, whim), tekë (caprice, fancy, freak, kink, vagary, whim), karakter i çuditshëm, kapriç (freak, vagary, whim), fantazira. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Arabic | نزوة (caprice, crank, fancy, fantasy, freak, heat, maggot, phantasy, quirk, vagary, whim), غرابة (eccentricity, odiousness, otherness, peculiarity, quaintness, queerness, singularity, strangeness, weirdness, whimsicality), سخرية غريبة. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Bulgarian | хрумване (fancy, flash, idea, impulse, inspiration, notion, quirk, whim, whim-wham), каприз (caprice, crank, fad, fancy, fit, freak, maggot, megrim, quirk, vagary, vagrancy, whim-wham), прищявка (caprice, crotchet, fad, fizgig, kink, maggot, megrim, vagary, whim, whim-wham). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Danish | snurrige syndromer (whimsy syndromes). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Farsi | هوس (Caprice, Fancy, Gee, Heartthrob, Libido, Lust, Scape, Whim), وسواس (Maggot, Obsession, Scape, Scrupulosity, Whim), تلون مزاج (Whim), بوالهوسی (Gee, Vagary). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
French | lubie (whim), fantaisie (whim), caprice (whim). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
German | Laune (caprice, fancy, frame, freak, humor, humour, mood, quirk, spirit, sulkiness, temper, vagary, vein, whim). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Greek | καπρίτσιο (caprice, fancy, whim), ιδιοτροπία (caprice, crankiness, crotchetiness, faddiness, fancy, freak, kink, maggot, moodiness, quirk, tetchiness, vagary, whim, whimsicalness), παραξενιά (bizarreness, oddity, quaintness, quizzicalness, weirdness). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hebrew | קפריסי (capricious, flighty, wanton, wayward, whimsical), הומור משונה. (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Hungarian | szeszély (caprice, fancy, fantasy, fit, kink, maggot, tantrum, whim), hóbort (caprice, craze, eccentricity, fad, vagary, whim). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Italian | capriccio (caprice, device, fad, fancy, freak, kink, maggot, mood, sulkiness, vagary, whim). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Kanji | 気紛れ (caprice, fickle, moody, uneven temper, whim), 気まぐれ (caprice, fickle, moody, uneven temper, whim), 放漫 (indiscretion, laxity, looseness). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Japanese Katakana | きまぐれ (caprice, fickle, moody, uneven temper, whim), ほうまん (corpulent, indiscretion, laxity, looseness, plump, satiety, stout, surfeit, voluptuous). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Pig Latin | imsywhay fantasiado, extravagância (crotchet, extravagance, faddist, flamboyancy, flamboyant, freak, impertinent, lunacy, oddity, whim), capricho (caprice, crank, craze, crotchet, faddiness, freak, gambade, humor, humour, maggot, vagary, whim, whimsical), banalidade (banality, commonplace, platitude, trifling, triteness, triviality, truism). (various references) toanã (caprice, crotchet, fancy, freak, humor, humour, vagary, whim), cu toane (capricious, fanciful, fancy, maggoty, Moody, wayward, whimsical), capriciu (caprice, crotchet, fad, fancy, freak, notion, quirk, whim), capricios (arbitrary, capricious, cranky, crotchety, difficult, fanciful, fancy, fantastic, fantastical, fickle, fitful, fractious, freakish, frolic, Froward, humoursome, peevish, perverse, vagarious, wanton, wayward, whimsical). (various references) прихоть (crank, whim, whims). (various references) hir (caprice). (various references) capricho (capriccio, caprice, fancy, fantasy, freak, humor, humour, mood, notion, obstinacy, phantasy, quirk, sulkiness, vagary, waywardness, whim, whimsey). (various references) fantasier (fantasies). (various references) maymun iştahlı (desultory, fickle, flighty, temperamental, whimsey, whimsical), kaprisli (capricious, fanciful, fey, freakish, humoursome, notional, wayward, whimsey, whimsical), kapris (caprice, fancy, fit, freak, kink, vagary, waywardness, whim, whimsey), heves (alacrity, ambition, anxiety, Ardor, ardour, brio, cult, desire, eagerness, enthusiasm, fad, fancy, fit, freak, furor, furore, grace, inclination, itch, keenness, maggot, nine days' wonder, notion, relish, stomach, studiousness, whim, whimsey, zeal), geçici istek (whim, whimsey), acayip fikirli (whimsey, whimsical). (various references) уява (fancy, fantasy, imagination, thought, vision, whimsey), чудацтво (whimsey), каприз (caprice, whimsey), примха (buzz, caprice, fad, fancy, fantasy, freak, maggot, megrim, vagary, wantonness, whim, whimsey), примхливий (arbitrary, capricious, choice, cranky, fanciful, fractious, freak, freakish, huffish, humorous, humous, inconstant, maggoty, naughty, notional, notionate, skittish, whimsey, whimsical). (various references) tính chất kỳ dị (whimsicality, whimsicalness), tính đồng bóng tính chất kỳ quái (whimsicality, whimsicalness). (various references) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Misspellings | |
"Whimsy" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Chimsky, whampy, whimpy, whimz, whoms, winsy. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "h-i-m-s-w-y" | |
-1 letter: whims. | |
-2 letters: shim, swim, whim, whys, wish, ywis. | |
-3 letters: him, his, ism, mis, shy, sim, why, wis. | |
-4 letters: hi, hm, is, mi, my, sh, si. | |
| Words containing the letters "h-i-m-s-w-y" | |
+1 letter: whimsey. | |
+2 letters: whimseys. | |
+3 letters: mawkishly. | |
+4 letters: womanishly. | |
+5 letters: whimsically. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)57 68 69 6D 73 79 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
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| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
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| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
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| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
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Morse Code (1836) (references).--. .... .. -- ... -.--. |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
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| Amazon.com BOOKS: Search for: "whimsy" |
