as in notions
a sudden impulsive and apparently unmotivated idea or action
on a whim, we stopped at the roadside stand to get ice cream
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Recent Examples of whims
Not as freaks to be studied from afar, mimicked, and exploited for other people’s creative whims or amusement, but as complex and whole parts of the world worth exploring and celebrating.
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Sarah Kurchak, Time, 9 Jan. 2026
Beyond immigration, Miller specializes in turning the president’s whims and rantings into government policy.
—Michael Scherer, The Atlantic, 7 Jan. 2026
Leven is still at the whims of the macroeconomic climate plaguing restaurants in recent years.
—Max Scheinblum, Denver Post, 6 Jan. 2026
As for whether whims like that need to be indulged, Mayer, perhaps not surprisingly, is on the side of the talent.
—Chris Willman, Variety, 5 Jan. 2026
The Fed has traditionally operated separately from the rest of Washington, making its decisions on interest rates without having to bend to political whims.
—Stan Choe, Chicago Tribune, 2 Jan. 2026
For its part, Singapore has been aggressively retrofitted according to the whims of capital—its coastline expanded, its graveyards exhumed and paved over, its landmarks destroyed—leaving the populace disoriented.
—Dan Piepenbring, Harpers Magazine, 30 Dec. 2025
This new agency should get access to NWF dollars and not have to depend on political whims for its funding, as is the case now.
—Teri Sforza, Oc Register, 29 Oct. 2025
Michelle is more cunning, figuring out how to play these two to her whims, while Teddy struggles to prove her extraterrestrial origins.
—Katie Walsh, Twin Cities, 24 Oct. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for whims
Noun
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Our legal and historical notions of agency have long depended on physical embodiment—the sanctity of a single, identifiable body.—
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But a more recent line of research has pushed back against these notions, using statistical analysis to suggest that the apparent variations in response are just the result of measurement error and day-to-day biological variability.—
Noun
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Today, every country’s economy is tied to others, but a small nation that’s as historically dependent on trade as Denmark seems particularly vulnerable to Trump’s caprices.—
Noun
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And all these considerations are preceded by the unpredictable, impossible-to-model vagaries of smoke itself.—
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The vagaries of the administration’s plans stood out in contrast with the precision of Maduro’s capture.—
Noun
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Although the film became a template for white revenge fantasies, its street thugs are assembled with almost comic care to avoid racial bias.—
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Anyone who’s survived to 2026 knows the upper class’ fictitious fantasies still carry real, wretched consequences for the rest of us, but Season 4 plays out those ongoing scenarios to the nth degree, while condensing them into an appreciable narrative arc.—
Noun
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In The Girlfriend, the truth is malleable, open to change based on our biases, judgments, whimsies, and desires.—
Cite this Entry
“Whims.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/whims. Accessed 20 Jan. 2026.
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