whip-smart

adjective

ˈ(h)wip-ˌsmärt 

variants or less commonly whip smart or whipsmart

: very smart or clever

whip-smart dialogue

But underestimate or patronise Jessica at your peril. She's whip-smart, ultra-ambitious and brutally honest.

—Kerry Potter

He is also whip smart and tenacious, driven and efficient, typical of the breed so often attracted to academic medical research.

—Lisa Belkin

Examples of whip-smart in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

That Ilyas is whip-smart for a kid, but extremely reserved, is the fulcrum for much of the comedy. — Siddhant Adlakha, Variety, 5 Aug. 2026

Trading in her girl-next-door persona, Snow delivered three vastly different performances over the past year, each featuring a whip-smart woman fighting for her own survival. — Max Gao, HollywoodReporter, 17 June 2026

Its charm is in its simplicity of concept − Morgan plays a disgraced football star trying to rehab his image with the help of a struggling documentarian (Radcliffe) − and the whip-smart execution of its jokes. — Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 17 June 2026

Over the course of three seasons, viewers have come to know Kate (Keri Russell) and Hal (Rufus Sewell) Wyler as a zany, passionate, whip-smart and occasionally toxic couple whose entire romantic history is wrapped up in their high-stakes careers. — Katie Campione, Deadline, 14 May 2026

Word History

First Known Use

1942, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for whip-smart

• apart
• depart
• flowchart
• forepart
• impart
• pushcart
• rampart
• redstart
• restart
• subpart
• sweetheart
• upstart