Meanings
nounwhydunit (plural whydunits)
plural whydunits · alternative whydunnit
- broadcastingA type of detective story in which the focus is not on the person who committed the crime, but on the motives for committing it.
Connery takes over the interrogation and in the process beats the man to death. This much we know almost from the beginning, so the film is less of a whodunit than a whydunit.
1985, Laurence Urdang, Walter W. Hunsinger, Nancy LaRoche, Picturesque expressions: a thematic dictionary, page 420
Cite this entry
APA
whydunit. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/whydunit
MLA
“whydunit.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/whydunit. Accessed November 3, 2026.
Chicago
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “whydunit,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/whydunit.
Source: whydunit on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.