Whiz or wiz?
whiz is a verb meaning “To make a whirring or hissing sound, similar to that of an object speeding…”; wiz is a noun meaning “A person who is exceptionally clever, gifted or skilled in a particular area”. Use whiz as a verb and wiz as a noun (wiz is also a verb: “To be promoted to wizard (administrator) status in a…”). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) wiz is about 1.7 times as common as whiz.
What is the difference between whiz and wiz?
| whiz | wiz | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | verb, noun, preposition | noun, verb, preposition |
| Meaning | USTo make a whirring or hissing sound, similar to that of an object speeding through the air USTo rush or move swiftly with such a sound USA whirring or hissing sound (as above) | A person who is exceptionally clever, gifted or skilled in a particular area informalA wizard; an administrator of a multi-user dungeon informalTo be promoted to wizard (administrator) status in a multi-user dungeon, by completing the game quest |
| Example | I whizzed the ball past the catcher | a maths wiz |
| Forms | whizzes, whizzing, whizzed | wizzes |
| Pronunciation | /wɪz/ | /wɪz/ |
| In writing | about once in every 1 million words | 1.3 times per million words |
Sources: whiz and wiz in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of whiz and wiz
whiz
- 1
USTo make a whirring or hissing sound, similar to that of an object speeding through the air
- 2
USA whirring or hissing sound (as above)
- 3
USslangPronunciation spelling of with
- 4
USTo rush or move swiftly with such a sound
- 5
USinformalSomeone who is remarkably skilled at something
He's a whiz with the computers
- 6
USTo throw or spin rapidly
I whizzed the ball past the catcher
- 7
USslangvulgarAn act of urination
I have to take a whiz
- 8
USslangvulgarTo urinate
We whizzed in the bushes
wiz
- 1
A person who is exceptionally clever, gifted or skilled in a particular area
a maths wiz
- 2
informalTo be promoted to wizard (administrator) status in a multi-user dungeon, by completing the game quest
I lost interest and stopped playing soon after I wizzed
- 3
slangvulgarAlternative spelling of whiz: an act of urination
I have to take a wiz
- 4
slangPronunciation spelling of with
- 5
informalA wizard; an administrator of a multi-user dungeon
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, whiz or wiz?
whiz appears about once in every 1 million words; wiz 1.3 times per million words.
whiz about once in every 1 million wordswiz 1.3 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search whiz vs wiz?
“whiz vs wiz” is searched about 90 times a month on Google and 10 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“wiz vs whiz”, “whiz or wiz”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.