whodunits

whodunits — noun

1. a story — usually a book, film, or play — in which a crime, most often a murder,

1.nounB2
Definition

a story — usually a book, film, or play — in which a crime, most often a murder, is investigated and the reader or viewer does not find out who carried it out until the very end.

Example

Chiara reads three whodunits monthly and tries to solve the crime before the final chapter.

collocation: read a whodunit

Leila's bookshelf is filled with classic whodunits from the 1930s and 1940s.

collocation: classic whodunit

Common collocations
  • classic whodunit
  • gripping whodunit
  • perfect whodunit
  • traditional whodunit
  • whodunit about a murder
  • whodunit set in a mansion
Synonyms
  • detective story

    more formal; focuses on the investigator's role rather than the puzzle

  • murder mystery

    slightly more specific — highlights that the crime is a murder

  • mystery

    broader: covers any unexplained event, not necessarily a crime

  • crime novel

    wider category that includes police procedurals and thrillers, not all of which are whodunits

Grammar Patterns

a whodunit / whodunits

whodunit + about + [topic]

Usage Note

Frequently used informally. The singular form is whodunit (also spelled whodunnit). The word was coined in American English as a playful contraction of the English dialect question 'Who done it?' (meaning 'Who did it?').

Common Mistakes

I am reading a whodunits.
I am reading a whodunit.
whodunit is the singular form; whodunits is the plural form.
A whodunit is a story about a mystery.' (too vague)
A whodunit is a story in which the reader follows the investigation of a crime and does not know the criminal's identity until the end.
the defining feature of a whodunit is the puzzle of discovering who the culprit is.
This thriller is a great whodunit.' — (if the killer's identity is revealed early)
This whodunit keeps the killer's identity hidden until the last chapter.
a story is only a whodunit if the identity of the criminal is a mystery to the audience.

Word family

Synonym discussion

Sense: noun/1

'Whodunit', 'mystery', 'detective story', 'crime novel', and 'thriller' all involve suspense but differ in focus. A whodunit centres on the puzzle of identifying the culprit — the reader and the investigator discover clues together. A 'mystery' is broader, covering any unexplained event, not necessarily a crime. A 'detective story' highlights a specific investigator's method and reasoning. A 'crime novel' is the widest category, including stories about criminals, police work, and courtroom drama — some of which reveal the criminal early. A 'thriller' emphasises danger and tension more than the puzzle itself; the reader may know who the villain is from the start. For example, a book about a detective hunting a serial killer may be both a whodunit (if the killer's identity is hidden) and a thriller (if the chase is high-stakes), but a novel about a planned heist where the reader knows the thief from page one is a crime novel but not a whodunit.

mystery ↗detective storycrime novelthriller ↗

Common collocations

Nouns

Phrases

  • a classic whodunit
  • a perfect whodunit
  • a traditional whodunit

Prepositions

Etymology

English

Whodunit was coined in American English around 1930 as a playful contraction of the dialect question 'Who done it?' (a non-standard form of 'Who did it?'). The first known printed use appeared in a 1930 review of a mystery novel in the American magazine 'News of Books'. The word was formed by running the four words 'who' + 'done' + 'it' together, creating a single noun that names the genre of story built around finding out who committed the crime.

First known use

1929

1929, in the meaning defined above