Meanings
plural humdingers
- informalSomething that is particularly outstanding, unusual, or exceptional.
Most of the questions were pretty easy, but that last one was a humdinger.
2 more examples
“—immense. I'm a real, slam-bang, honest-to-goodness, three-fisted humdinger. I'm a bona fide supraman.” “Superman?” Clevinger cried. “Superman?” “Supraman,” Yossarian corrected.
1961, Joseph Heller, Catch-22, London: Vintage Books, published 2010, →ISBN, page 22“I’ve seen some humdingers, but never any ordinance like this,” said Mark Hayes, general counsel for the Arkansas Municipal League, an organization for towns and cities.
2011 July 19, Robbie Brown, “Arkansas Town Draws a Line on Clubs”, in New York Times
Synonyms & antonyms
Origin
US origin, perhaps a blend of hummer (“something that moves fast”) + dinger (“something outstanding”). First attested in a newspaper article in the Daily Enterprise of June 4, 1883, at Livingston, Montana.
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with humdinger
Cite this entry
humdinger. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/humdinger
“humdinger.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/humdinger. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “humdinger,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/humdinger.
Source: humdinger on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.