wham

1 of 3

noun

ˈ(h)wam 

1

: a solid blow

2

: the loud sound of a hard impact

wham

2 of 3

adverb

ˈ(h)wam 

variants or whammo

ˈ(h)wa-(ˌ)mō 

: with violent abruptness

everything was going well; then wham the deal fell through

wham

3 of 3

verb

whammed; whamming

transitive verb

: to propel, strike, or beat so as to produce a loud impact

intransitive verb

: to hit or explode with a loud impact

Synonyms

Noun

• bang
• bash
• bat
• beat
• belt
• biff
• blow
• bop
• box
• buffet
• bust
• chop
• clap
• clip
• clout
• crack
• cuff
• dab
• douse [British]
• fillip
• hack
• haymaker
• hit
• hook
• knock
• larrup [dialect]
• lash
• lick
• pelt
• pick
• plump
• poke
• pound
• punch
• rap
• slam
• slap
• slug
• smack
• smash
• sock
• spank
• stinger
• stripe
• stroke
• swat
• swipe
• switch
• thud
• thump
• thwack
• wallop
• welt
• whack
• whop
• whap

Examples of wham in a Sentence

Noun

gave the TV a good wham with her fist, and suddenly the picture came back on

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

Easy drinking 100% Merlot with 14% alcohol with flavors that include dark licorice, cinnamon and nutmeg and a wham of a finish. —Tom Mullen, Forbes, 23 Feb. 2025

Bryan Ferry, Brian Eno and company made their wham-bam-glam debut on ‘Roxy Music’ 50 years ago. —Jill Krajewski, SPIN, 8 June 2022

Perhaps my overall disappointment stems from this pilot stiffness, but the more likely culprit is the standard brashness of American reality television, which is less cinema vérité and more wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am. —Robyn Bahr, The Hollywood Reporter, 4 Feb. 2020

But the movie, for all its retrograde politics and wham-bam machismo, can also be slick, silly fun — a giddy exercise in freewheeling nihilism, played to the hilt. —Leah Greenblatt, EW.com, 23 Jan. 2020

The movie comes at you with a quick, wham-bam style that feels like a nod to the source material, a DC Vertigo comic-book series by Ollie Masters and Ming Doyle. —San Diego Union-Tribune, 8 Aug. 2019

Verb

Goalscorer Asamoah Gyan took the resulting penalty, only to wham it off the top of the bar. —SI.com, 21 June 2019

Word History

Etymology

Noun

imitative

First Known Use

Noun

1739, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Adverb

1924, in the meaning defined above

Verb

1925, in the meaning defined at transitive sense

Phrases Containing wham

• whim-wham

Rhymes for wham

• am
• bam
• cham
• clam
• damme
• damn
• dram
• flam
• fram
• gram
• ham
• jam