as in bumping
to come into usually forceful contact with something
the snowball thudded against the side of my car
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Recent Examples of thudding
The latest version kicks off with a moody set piece before a gun shot and thudding drums make way for a beat that sounds like a drowning beeper.
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Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 2 Dec. 2025
The early-career excitement Spielberg generated with Duel, The Sugarland Express, Jaws and Close Encounters of the Third Kind came to a thudding halt with the frenetically busy, hopelessly bloated war comedy, 1941.
—David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 20 Nov. 2025
Producers Mufasa and Yvng Gucci seamlessly pull off morphing the skittering drums of a somewhat generic UK drill beat into a thudding bouyon rhythm for Guadeloupean trio HollyG to run amok over.
—Alphonse Pierre, Pitchfork, 6 Nov. 2025
Here’s where the treadmill picks up and our steps start thudding on the track.
—Steven Louis Goldstein, New York Times, 8 Oct. 2025
In 2016, when Bad Bunny first emerged, he was identified with a style known as Latin trap, a woozy and thudding hybrid that owes something to American hip-hop.
—Kelefa Sanneh, New Yorker, 17 Sep. 2025
That naturalistic, lo-fi approach might play just fine were Maxine not saddled with a heavy, thudding cancer arc.
—Richard Lawson, IndieWire, 7 Sep. 2025
With daily departures from Chicago Union station, the superliner service rumbles through Illinois chasing mile after mile of golden-red corn fields before thudding over the Mississippi river into Iowa.
—Monisha Rajesh, Condé Nast Traveler, 18 Oct. 2022
Recent Examples of Synonyms for thudding
Verb
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Bolstering that pair — or, even better, the second pair, and bumping down rookie Axel Sandin-Pellikka to the third — would go a long way toward solidifying the blue line.—
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The notice also says the positions involved aren’t tied to a union, so bumping rights don’t apply.—
Verb
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One woman carried a flag for Palestine, while a man banging a cowbell hung a flag of communist Cuba on his backpack.—
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Gamers have turned to walkthroughs and hints for years, but usually after banging their own heads against difficult challenges, and hence learning something in the process.—
Verb
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Bystander video footage that has since gone viral captured a masked federal agent fire multiple shots into Good's vehicle, which then drove up the street before slamming into the back of another car.—
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Convenience store owners are slamming the proposal as restrictive and unnecessary.—
Verb
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Once stationary, deactivate all lights except the hazard flashers, engage the emergency brake, and release the brake pedal to ensure your tail lights are not illuminated, reducing the risk of other drivers colliding with your stationary vehicle.—
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After colliding with Sanchez’s vehicle, the driver allegedly continued to elude police and struck a recreational vehicle parked on private property.—
Verb
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As Hodges stood there, scared and vulnerable, the man grabbed his baton and bashed him on the head with it, rupturing his lip and smashing his skull.—
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The man accused of smashing windows on Vice President JD Vance's home with a hammer is facing separate prosecutions in state and federal court.—
Verb
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Her vehicle accelerated down the road, crashing into parked cars nearby.—
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The Honda traveled another several feet before crashing into another car.—
Verb
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The right words can open doors the heart’s been knocking on for a while.—
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Once the buzz starts, fringe brands come knocking.—
Verb
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Noem again described the incident as an act of domestic terrorism and said there has been a rise in vehicle-ramming attacks against federal officers nationwide in recent weeks.—
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Notably, the assessment also discusses the concern about the use of vehicle ramming in attacks, like the one that occurred in New Orleans on January 1, 2025, killing 14 people.—
Cite this Entry
“Thudding.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/thudding. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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