wheelhouse

noun

wheel·house ˈ(h)wēl-ˌhau̇s

plural wheelhouses

: pilothouse

Looking out at the all-but-empty bay from the wheelhouse of the new 28-foot research boat …—

Bill Nemitz

He climbed a rickety rope ladder to the ship's deck, then another five flights of stairs to the wheelhouse.—

Daniel Machalaba

: a place or center of control or leadership (as in an organization)

But while there was momentary calm in the wheelhouse, there was still a real question whether anyone was really in command of the administration's foreign-policy machinery.—

David Gelman et al.

baseball : the section of the strike zone where it is easiest for the batter to hit the ball well

The home run came on a 3–2 pitch. [Danny] Graves tried to get Jenkins with a sinker. "It was right in his wheelhouse," Graves said.—

John Fay

: an area that matches a person's skills or expertise

… he was right in his wheelhouse—politics is where [Stephen] Colbert soars.—

Adam Chitwood

Examples of wheelhouse in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web Farm, in an area that’s known for being simultaneously rustic and luxurious, is right in Bianco’s wheelhouse. —

Andy Wang, Robb Report, 13 Sep. 2023 With a narrower zone funneling pitches into players’ wheelhouses, hitters have been emboldened to swing from their heels in pre-two-strike counts. —

Alex Speier, BostonGlobe.com, 31 Aug. 2023 And, subject-wise, this isn’t too far from my wheelhouse: questions of connections and community, and the infinite forms those can take, feel perpetually fascinating to me, largely owing to their inexhaustibility. —

Willing Davidson, The New Yorker, 29 Aug. 2023 The set’s exhilarating energy is matched by Barker’s unusually smooth mixing and unerring sense of pace; the lush finale makes for the perfect gentle comedown, and a return to Barker’s typically harmonic wheelhouse. —

Philip Sherburne, Pitchfork, 22 Aug. 2023 On the Naknek River at the protest, crews share coffee in the wheelhouses. —

Jack Darrell, Anchorage Daily News, 4 Aug. 2023 After conversations with both Margot and Adam, Captain Jason then called Laura to the wheelhouse. —

Kirsty Hatcher, Peoplemag, 8 Aug. 2023 In the wheelhouse of a crab boat named Heidi Sue, Mike Pettis watched the gray whale surface and shoot water through its blowhole. —

Ed Komenda, Anchorage Daily News, 5 Aug. 2023 It was distinguished from other vessels not only by its size, but by its graceful exterior and matching balconies on either side of the wheelhouse. —

Julia Zaltzman, Robb Report, 4 Aug. 2023 See More

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'wheelhouse.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.