Nearby Words

Whodunit

[hoo-duhn-it] Origin

who·dun·it

[hoo-duhn-it]
noun Informal.
a narrative dealing with a murder or a series of murders and the detection of the criminal; detective story.

Origin:
1925–30; jocular formation from question Who done it?, for standard English Who did it?
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
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Whodunit is always a great word to know.
So is doohickey. Does it mean:
a gadget; dingus; thingumbob.
a fool or simpleton; ninny.
Collins
World English Dictionary
whodunnit or whodunit (huːˈdʌnɪt)
 
n
informal a novel, play, etc, concerned with a crime, usually murder
 
whodunit or whodunit
 
n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

whodunit
"murder mystery," 1930, U.S. slang, originally a semi-facetious formation from who done it?
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Slang Dictionary

whodunit definition

[huˈdənɪt]
  1. n.
    a detective story. (See also thriller-diller.) : I go through about three whodunits a week.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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