whodunit

English

WOTD – 2 July 2009

Alternative forms

• whodunnit

Etymology

Coined by critic Donald Gordon in 1930. Alteration and univerbation of who done it? with ellipsis of has.

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˌhuːˈdʌn.ɪt/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Noun

whodunit (plural whodunits)

1. A novel or drama concerning a crime (usually a murder) in which a detective follows clues to determine the perpetrator.
   • 1946, Josephina Niggli, Pointers on radio writing, Boston: The Writer, Inc., page 25:

     Actually, an whodunit is a mystery story. The hero is generally a detective, although sometimes he is a gentleman (apparently a mild mannered worm) who sallies forth at night to become Public Enemy No. One of Crime. Otherwise, the formula is exactly the same as that of the Cliff-hanger and follows the same rules.

Synonyms

(A fictional story of a crime which a detective solves): detective novel, detective story, mystery story

Hypernyms

(A fictional story of a crime which a detective solves): thriller

Related terms

• howdunit
• wheredunit
• whydunit

 

Translations

a crime novel or drama

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 偵探小說／侦探小说 (zhēntàn xiǎoshuō), 犯罪小說／犯罪小说 (fànzuì xiǎoshuō)

• Czech: detektivka (cs) f
• Danish: krimi (da), kriminalroman, kriminalfilm
• Dutch: detectiveverhaal (nl) n, krimi (nl) m
• Finnish: salapoliisitarina, dekkari (fi)
• French: roman policier (fr) m
• German: Kriminalroman (de) m, (colloquial) Krimi (de) m, Detektivroman (de) m
• Hungarian: krimi (hu), detektívregény (hu), bűnügyi regény
• Italian: giallo (it) m
• Japanese: 推理小説 (すいりしょうせつ, suiri shōsetsu), 犯罪小説 (はんざいしょうせつ, hanzai shōsetsu), クライム・ノベル (kuraimu-noberu)
• Korean: 추리소설(推理小說) (ko) (churisoseol), 범죄물(犯罪物) (beomjoemul)
• Macedonian: кримич m (krimič)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: kriminal m, krim (no) m, kriminalroman m, kriminalfilm m

• Polish: kryminał (pl) m, powieść kryminalna f, powieść detektywistyczna f
• Portuguese: romance criminal m
• Romanian: roman polițist (ro) n
• Russian: детекти́вный рома́н (dɛtɛktívnyj román), детекти́в (ru) (dɛtɛktív)
• Spanish: novela policíaca f, novela policial f
• Swedish: deckare (sv) c, kriminalroman (sv) c, kriminalfilm c
• Turkish: polisiye (tr)
• Upper Sorbian: kriminalny roman m, kriminalka f, krimi m

See also

• police procedural

References

• Oxford Dictionaries [1]

Anagrams

• howdunit