Meaning & use
whim
Last updated
UK/wɪm/
US/wɪm/
Meaning
nouncountable
A sudden wish or idea that comes without planning, often changing as quickly as it came.
Grammar: Countable; often used in the phrase on a whim or at someone's whim.
Patterns
- on a whim
- at the whim of someone
- a whim for something
On a whim, we booked a flight to Lisbon.
She bought the hat purely out of whim.
The garden changes at the gardener's whim every spring.
Word forms
| plural | whims |
|---|
Common combinations
- on a whim
- He quit his job on a whim.
- at the whim of
- Small farms are at the whim of the weather.
- sudden whim
- A sudden whim sent us to the beach.
- indulge a whim
- Once a year she likes to indulge a whim and buy something silly.
- pass of a whim
- His interest in painting was only a passing whim.
- follow your whims
- On holiday we followed our whims instead of a plan.
Synonyms and how they differ
- impulse
- Impulse is a sudden urge to act right now, while whim is a passing fancy that may be less urgent.
- fancy
- Fancy is a lighter, more old-fashioned word for a liking, whereas whim stresses the lack of reason.
- caprice
- Caprice is a formal word that stresses unpredictable changes of mind, more than a single wish.
- urge
- Urge is a strong inner push that is hard to resist, while a whim is usually light and harmless.
Opposites
Word family
- whimsical adjective
- playful and unusual in a charming way
- whimsy noun
- playful, fanciful behavior or humor
- whimsically adverb
- in a playful and unpredictable way
- whimsicality noun
- the quality of being playful and unusual
Commonly confused: whim or whimper?
whim vs whimper
A whimper is a soft, weak cry, while a whim is a sudden wish.
Practice
They moved to the coast on a ____ and have never regretted it.
Choose one answer.
On a whim means without planning. Schedule, contract and routine all describe organized arrangements, which contradicts the idea of a sudden choice.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “whim”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.
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