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

whirlwind

adjective

Definition of whirlwindnext
as in rapid
moving, proceeding, or acting with great speed after a whirlwind romance of only a few weeks, the couple decided to get married

Synonyms & Similar Words

Relevance

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 whirlwind The two of them had a whirlwind couple of months, stopping by the Coachella stage to play with Karol G and hitting the World Cup opening ceremony for a headline-making performance. — Julyssa Lopez, Rolling Stone, 10 Aug. 2026 Zelenskyy made the request directly to Trump in an Oval Office meeting this week during his whirlwind trip to Washington, according to one person familiar with the matter. — Lisa Mascaro, Fortune, 2 Aug. 2026 August 1968 was quite the whirlwind month for the blond, blue-eyed Peaker, who was finishing up on 20th Century Fox’s adaptation of Hello, Dolly! — Mike Barnes, HollywoodReporter, 27 July 2026 Did my college buddy who drove up from Baltimore bargain for a whirlwind circuit of my objectively not-that-interesting Delaware town? — Rafaela Jinich, The Atlantic, 26 July 2026 See All Example Sentences for whirlwind
Recent Examples of Synonyms for whirlwind
  1. rapid
  2. brisk
  3. quick
  4. fast
  5. galloping
Adjective
  • Mohamed al-Bukhaiti, a member of the Houthis' political bureau, said Washington reached out to the rebels after their rapid advance down Yemen's western coast to the Bab el-Mandeb Strait earlier this month.
    — Arkansas Online, Arkansas Online, 21 Sep. 2026
  • Now, with growing bipartisan opposition to the rapid buildout of data centers suggest that even ordinary residents of communities and voters have increased power to help pace the frontier from the bottom up.
    — Bhaskar Chakravorti, Fortune, 20 Sep. 2026
Definition of rapid
Adjective
  • Roughly 30 minutes a day of brisk walking, light jogging, swimming or cycling supports the hormone’s natural rhythm when the effort feels energising rather than exhausting.
    — Hanna Wickes, Kansas City Star, 22 Sep. 2026
  • Cooler temps and far less humidity than in summer make fall the ideal time to visit, and if the evenings get a bit brisk, there’s always a glass of bourbon to take the chill away.
    — Patricia Doherty, Travel + Leisure, 12 Sep. 2026
Definition of brisk
Adjective
  • Descano’s team has claimed prosecutions are pointless when the government’s own experts corroborate the insanity defense, while critics say his office is too quick to accept defendants’ narratives without a jury.
    — Hudson Crozier, The Washington Examiner, 21 Sep. 2026
  • Dog grooming tips like these show that grooming your dog at home can go well beyond a quick wipe-down.
    — Ryan Brennan, Charlotte Observer, 21 Sep. 2026
Definition of quick
Adjective
  • Success won’t be determined by who adopts AI the fastest or deploys post-quantum cryptography first.
    — Evgeny Gervis, Forbes.com, 22 Sep. 2026
  • Everyone wants to be fast, but most times the big laughs come from coming in at the right time as opposed to coming in quickly.
    — Kathryn VanArendonk, Vulture, 21 Sep. 2026
Definition of fast
Adjective
  • As his health faded in the last year of his life, Neruda rushed to finish his story, which gives the last chapters of his book a galloping, fragmented quality.
    — Tunku Varadarajan, WSJ, 25 June 2021
  • Designed by renowned architect Dominique Perrault, its four stories tilting forward are said to evoke a galloping horse.
    — Rob Hodgetts at Longchamp, CNN, 15 Oct. 2019
Definition of galloping

Browse Nearby Words

whirls
whirlwind
whirlybird
See all Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Whirlwind.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/whirlwind. Accessed 25 Sep. 2026.

Copy Citation

More from Merriam-Webster on whirlwind

Britannica.com: Encyclopedia article about whirlwind

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 tactile

See Definitions and Examples »

Popular in Grammar & Usage

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

More Commonly Mispronounced Words

Why do we use apostrophes to show possession?

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

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

Popular in Wordplay

See More

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't

Back to School Vocabulary

14 Phobias You Probably Haven't Heard Of

The Words of the Week - Sept. 25
See More

Popular

See More

Do You Need a New Language Peeve?

The Longest Long Words List

9 Words That Sound Like Insults But Aren't
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
image of the words cracker fly and sale arranged in a triangle with the word fire in the middle
Triple Play Quiz Find the word that pairs with each of the three g...
See All