1
as in spell
a spoken word or set of words believed to have magic power
if you tell anyone about this, I swear I'll put the whammy on you
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
2
as in curse
something that brings bad luck
put the whammy on herself by publicly predicting that she would win the tennis tournament
Synonyms & Similar Words
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of whammy
Instead, Alcaraz held for 4-4 before Djokovic suffered a triple whammy in the ninth game.
—
Charlie Eccleshare, The Athletic, 21 Jan. 2025
Prolonged drought, an exceptionally dry winter and powerful Santa Ana winds have set up a dangerous triple whammy of extreme conditions that have fueled the wildfires, and firefighting efforts have faced challenging conditions with ongoing high winds.
—Alexandra Marquez, NBC News, 13 Jan. 2025
Prolonged drought, an exceptionally dry winter and powerful Santa Ana winds set up a dangerous triple whammy of extreme conditions that have fueled several out-of-control wildfires in the Los Angeles area.
—Denise Chow, NBC News, 9 Jan. 2025
For the Middle East’s oil exporters, COVID-19 has been a triple whammy.
—F. Gregory Gause Iii, Foreign Affairs, 4 Aug. 2020
See All Example Sentences for whammy
Charlie Eccleshare, The Athletic, 21 Jan. 2025
Prolonged drought, an exceptionally dry winter and powerful Santa Ana winds have set up a dangerous triple whammy of extreme conditions that have fueled the wildfires, and firefighting efforts have faced challenging conditions with ongoing high winds.
—Alexandra Marquez, NBC News, 13 Jan. 2025
Prolonged drought, an exceptionally dry winter and powerful Santa Ana winds set up a dangerous triple whammy of extreme conditions that have fueled several out-of-control wildfires in the Los Angeles area.
—Denise Chow, NBC News, 9 Jan. 2025
For the Middle East’s oil exporters, COVID-19 has been a triple whammy.
—F. Gregory Gause Iii, Foreign Affairs, 4 Aug. 2020
See All Example Sentences for whammy
Recent Examples of Synonyms for whammy
Noun
-
His sole Premier League appearance came against Manchester City nearly four years later and his career has included loan spells with Lincoln City, Peterborough United, MK Dons and Rotherham United.—
Roshane Thomas,
New York Times,
23 Apr. 2025
-
The company's manifesto unabashedly promotes the tool as an aid to cheating and likens its arrival to inventions like calculators, spell checkers, and Google.—
Jibin Joseph,
PC Magazine,
22 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
After turning undead and hiding her bite wound, Mary easily gets permission to re-enter the building, and quickly seduces Stack, before murdering him and infecting him with the vampire curse.—
Dani Di Placido,
Forbes.com,
24 Apr. 2025
-
Maybe that’s more blessing than curse in our age of baldly allegorical horror movies.—
A.A. Dowd,
Rolling Stone,
17 Apr. 2025
Noun
-
Knocking on wood: This age-old superstition is believed to prevent bad luck or jinxes.—
Brandi D. Addison,
Austin American-Statesman,
13 Dec. 2024
-
This gave Mahomes the go ahead to change up his hairstyle without worrying about a potential jinx.—
Ross Rosenfeld,
Newsweek,
26 Feb. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Whammy.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/whammy. Accessed 1 May. 2025.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
Share