"buzzkill" meaning in English

See buzzkill in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

IPA: /ˈbʌzkɪl/ [General-American] Audio: En-au-buzzkill.ogg Forms: buzzkills [plural]
Etymology: From buzz (“feeling of energy or excitement”) + kill. Etymology templates: {{com|en|buzz|kill|t1=feeling of energy or excitement}} buzz (“feeling of energy or excitement”) + kill Head templates: {{en-noun}} buzzkill (plural buzzkills)
  1. (slang, idiomatic) Something that or someone who spoils an otherwise enjoyable event. Tags: idiomatic, slang Synonyms (something or someone who spoils an enjoyable event): dampener Translations (someone who spoils an event): Spielverderber [masculine] (German), Spaßbremse [feminine] (German), estraga-prazeres [masculine] (Portuguese)
    Sense id: en-buzzkill-en-noun-ODhaN-xy Categories (other): People, Personality Disambiguation of People: 48 52 Disambiguation of Personality: 100 0 Disambiguation of 'something or someone who spoils an enjoyable event': 70 30 Disambiguation of 'someone who spoils an event': 66 34
  2. (slang, idiomatic) A person who attends a social event and occupies their time with unsociable activities. Tags: idiomatic, slang
    Sense id: en-buzzkill-en-noun-DBsk0OZ0 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Entries with translation boxes, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries, Terms with German translations, Terms with Portuguese translations, People Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 8 92 Disambiguation of Entries with translation boxes: 12 88 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 5 95 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 4 96 Disambiguation of Terms with German translations: 12 88 Disambiguation of Terms with Portuguese translations: 12 88 Disambiguation of People: 48 52
The following are not (yet) sense-disambiguated
Synonyms: killjoy, wet blanket, party-pooper [person], spoilsport

Inflected forms

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  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "buzz",
        "3": "kill",
        "t1": "feeling of energy or excitement"
      },
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      "name": "com"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From buzz (“feeling of energy or excitement”) + kill.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "buzzkills",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
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  "head_templates": [
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  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
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          "_dis": "48 52",
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          "_dis": "100 0",
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          "orig": "en:Personality",
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          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Something that or someone who spoils an otherwise enjoyable event."
      ],
      "id": "en-buzzkill-en-noun-ODhaN-xy",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang, idiomatic) Something that or someone who spoils an otherwise enjoyable event."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "70 30",
          "sense": "something or someone who spoils an enjoyable event",
          "word": "dampener"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "slang"
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "_dis1": "66 34",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "lang_code": "de",
          "sense": "someone who spoils an event",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "Spielverderber"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "66 34",
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "lang_code": "de",
          "sense": "someone who spoils an event",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "Spaßbremse"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "66 34",
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "lang_code": "pt",
          "sense": "someone who spoils an event",
          "tags": [
            "masculine"
          ],
          "word": "estraga-prazeres"
        }
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
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          "_dis": "8 92",
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          "_dis": "12 88",
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          "_dis": "5 95",
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          "_dis": "4 96",
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          "_dis": "12 88",
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        "A person who attends a social event and occupies their time with unsociable activities."
      ],
      "id": "en-buzzkill-en-noun-DBsk0OZ0",
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        [
          "attend",
          "attend"
        ],
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          "social event"
        ],
        [
          "occupies",
          "occupy"
        ],
        [
          "time",
          "time"
        ],
        [
          "unsociable",
          "unsociable"
        ],
        [
          "activities",
          "activity"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang, idiomatic) A person who attends a social event and occupies their time with unsociable activities."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbʌzkɪl/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "En-au-buzzkill.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/ab/En-au-buzzkill.ogg/En-au-buzzkill.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/En-au-buzzkill.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "killjoy"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "wet blanket"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "tags": [
        "person"
      ],
      "word": "party-pooper"
    },
    {
      "_dis1": "0 0",
      "word": "spoilsport"
    }
  ],
  "word": "buzzkill"
}
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    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "Entries with translation boxes",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries",
    "Terms with German translations",
    "Terms with Portuguese translations",
    "en:People",
    "en:Personality"
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      "name": "com"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "From buzz (“feeling of energy or excitement”) + kill.",
  "forms": [
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      "form": "buzzkills",
      "tags": [
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      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
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      "expansion": "buzzkill (plural buzzkills)",
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English slang"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Something that or someone who spoils an otherwise enjoyable event."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(slang, idiomatic) Something that or someone who spoils an otherwise enjoyable event."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "slang"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English idioms",
        "English slang"
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A person who attends a social event and occupies their time with unsociable activities."
      ],
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        [
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          "attend"
        ],
        [
          "social event",
          "social event"
        ],
        [
          "occupies",
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        ],
        [
          "time",
          "time"
        ],
        [
          "unsociable",
          "unsociable"
        ],
        [
          "activities",
          "activity"
        ]
      ],
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        "(slang, idiomatic) A person who attends a social event and occupies their time with unsociable activities."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "idiomatic",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈbʌzkɪl/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
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      "audio": "En-au-buzzkill.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/a/ab/En-au-buzzkill.ogg/En-au-buzzkill.ogg.mp3",
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    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "sense": "something or someone who spoils an enjoyable event",
      "word": "dampener"
    },
    {
      "word": "killjoy"
    },
    {
      "word": "wet blanket"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "person"
      ],
      "word": "party-pooper"
    },
    {
      "word": "spoilsport"
    }
  ],
  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "lang_code": "de",
      "sense": "someone who spoils an event",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "Spielverderber"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "lang_code": "de",
      "sense": "someone who spoils an event",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "Spaßbremse"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "lang_code": "pt",
      "sense": "someone who spoils an event",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "estraga-prazeres"
    }
  ],
  "word": "buzzkill"
}

Download raw JSONL data for buzzkill meaning in English (2.5kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-12-23 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-12-02 using wiktextract (6fdc867 and 9905b1f). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.