Meaning & use
whump
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Meanings
nouncountable
A dull, heavy sound made when something soft and weighty hits a surface.
Grammar: Often used as a sound word: with a whump; a loud whump.
Patterns
- a whump as something lands
The sack landed on the floor with a whump.
We heard a distant whump as the snow slid off the roof.
The mattress fell flat with a soft whump.
verbtransitive or intransitiveinformal
To hit something or land with a dull, heavy thud.
Grammar: Can have an object or not: he whumped the pillow; the bag whumped down.
Patterns
- whump down
- whump something onto something
The dog whumped onto the couch and sighed.
She whumped her backpack onto the table.
Snow whumped off the branches behind us.
noununcountableslang
In fan fiction and online fandoms, a story style or scene in which a character is hurt, ill or distressed, often followed by comfort from another character.
Grammar: Uncountable and informal: she writes whump, or a whump story.
Patterns
- write whump
- whump fic
She writes a lot of whump about injured detectives and their loyal friends.
The fandom's whump prompts usually involve a storm and a long recovery.
He tagged his story as whump with a hurt/comfort ending.
Word forms
| third person singular | whumps |
|---|---|
| past tense | whumped |
| past participle | whumped |
| -ing form | whumping |
Common combinations
- land with a whump
- The parcel landed with a whump on the porch.
- dull whump
- There was a dull whump from the cellar.
- whump down
- He whumped down on the sofa after the exam.
- whump fic
- She posts a whump fic every Friday.
- whump and comfort
- The story is a mix of whump and comfort.
Synonyms and how they differ
- thud
- Thud is the standard word for a dull impact and works in any setting, while whump sounds softer and more informal.
- thump
- Thump suggests a firmer, sharper knock, whereas whump suggests something softer and heavier.
- plop
- Plop is lighter and suggests something small falling, often into liquid.
- hurt/comfort
- Hurt/comfort is the older fandom label for stories like whump, and often includes more emphasis on the comforting after the suffering.
Word family
- whumper noun
- a writer or fan of whump stories
- whumpee noun
- the character who is hurt in a whump story
- whumping noun
- the act of causing or writing the harm in such a story
- thump noun
- a heavy dull knock or blow
Commonly confused: whump or wump? whump or whomp?
whump vs wump
Wump is a rare spelling and is not standard. Whump is the usual spelling of the thudding sound.
whump vs whomp
Whomp is a close variant that can also mean to hit hard or defeat easily, and is used more as a verb than whump.
Practice
The heavy bag hit the floor with a dull ___.
Choose one answer.
Whump imitates a heavy muffled impact, which fits a bag hitting the floor. Whistle and whisper describe other sounds that do not match falling.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “whump”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.