1,400 new words in our dictionary! — Parasocial, glow-up, promposal & more
1,400 new words in our dictionary! — More

whams 1 of 2

noun

plural of wham
as in blows
a hard strike with a part of the body or an instrument gave the TV a good wham with her fist, and suddenly the picture came back on

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

whams

2 of 2

verb

present tense third-person singular of wham
as in smacks

Related Words

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for whams
  1. blows
  2. smacks
  3. thuds
  4. slaps
  5. thumps
  6. whacks
  7. punches
  8. thwacks
Noun
  • Like his wife, Andrew was also attacked with a hatchet, receiving as many as 11 blows to his face, leaving him nearly unrecognizable, according to Smithsonian Magazine.
    — Alex Gurley, PEOPLE, 19 Sep. 2026
  • Abby was struck 19 times by a hatchet-like object, with several blows crushing through her skull.
    — Britt Hayes, Entertainment Weekly, 18 Sep. 2026
Definition of blows
Verb
  • Other gamblers just don’t want to get swindled, so anything that smacks too clearly of insider trading can get you in trouble.
    — Jack Dolan, Los Angeles Times, 19 Aug. 2026
  • Byerley smacks the schmuck in the face and wins the election.
    — Jill Lepore, New Yorker, 10 Aug. 2026
Definition of smacks
Noun
  • Rapp, up on Taft Point, heard two thuds.
    — Nick Paumgarten, New Yorker, 4 May 2026
  • Likewise, the score by Tony Doogan leans too heavily on generic electronic thuds, the kind that segue into a commercial break cliffhanger and an ad for blood pressure medicine.
    — Amy Nicholson, Los Angeles Times, 23 Apr. 2026
Definition of thuds
Verb
  • Soto, looking irritated, reaches out and slaps him upside the head.
    — Sylvia Varnham O’Regan, Vanity Fair, 25 Aug. 2026
  • Helmut Haller, West Germany vs England, 1966 Ray Wilson misjudges his headed clearance, Haller gathers it on the edge of the box and, just before Bobby Moore can close him down, slaps a right-footed shot into the far corner.
    — Adam Hurrey, New York Times, 17 July 2026
Definition of slaps
Noun
  • The lower-vocal harmony struggles to stand out any time the deeper bass thumps.
    — Mark Knapp, PC Magazine, 10 Aug. 2026
  • Agents yelled from every direction, and the thumps of a news helicopter overhead were deafening.
    — Rob Picheta, CNN Money, 28 May 2026
Definition of thumps
Verb
  • With runners on the corners, Martinez whacks a two-run, RBI double to tie it at five.
    — Zoe Collins Rath, Austin American Statesman, 27 Mar. 2026
  • Then little Holly Wheeler and her 10-year-old friends, including the Season 5 favorite Derek (Jake Connelly), all swarm into the basement and take over the D&D table in a passing of the torch that basically whacks the audience over our collective heads.
    — Kelly Lawler, USA Today, 31 Dec. 2025
Definition of whacks
Noun
  • Two blue and yellow humanoid robots attempted to beat each other up with punches twice as hard as Mike Tyson’s.
    — Matthew Martin, semafor.com, 14 Sep. 2026
  • For Villa, there were mitigating circumstances in this latest defeat by Glasner, yet the worry is they are still being caught with the same punches.
    — Jacob Tanswell, New York Times, 14 Sep. 2026
Definition of punches
Verb
  • Morrison Strikes the Student, Too A few moments later, Morrison thwacks the boy in the center with a footlong plastic cylinder.
    — Jennifer Smith Richards, ProPublica, 24 July 2026
Definition of thwacks
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.

Browse Nearby Words

whammy
whams
whang
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Whams.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/whams. Accessed 21 Sep. 2026.

Copy Citation
Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!

More from Merriam-Webster

Word of the Day

Listen to the pronunciation of elegiac

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Why do we use apostrophes to show possession?

Merriam-Webster’s Great Big List of Words You Love to Hate

The Exceptions of '-s' and '-es' Plurals

A Who’s Who Regarding ‘Who’s’ and ‘Whose’

'A' or 'an'? What about before 'h'? An Indefinite Article Guide
See More

Popular in Wordplay

See More

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Back to School Vocabulary

Words from the 'Odyssey'

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Words of the Week - Sept. 18
See More

Popular

See More

Why do we use apostrophes to show possession?

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Back to School Vocabulary
See More

Games & Quizzes

See All
Play Quordle: Guess all four words in a limited number of tries. Each of your guesses must be a real 5-letter word.
Quordle Can you solve 4 words at once?
Play Blossom: Solve today's spelling word game by finding as many words as you can using just 7 letters. Longer words score more points.
Blossom Pick the best words!
Play Missing Letter: a crossword with a twist. Each of the 25 puzzle words start with a different letter of the alphabet. Which letter is missing?
The Missing Letter A daily crossword with a twist
crayons-in-a-circle
Guess the Color Quiz Questions that use the whole box of crayons.
See All