fuzz
English · Thesaurus
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fuzz¹
- /fʌz/
Rhymes with -ʌz
Where it comes from
Uncertain. Some dictionaries suggest a Germanic source; compare Low German fussig (“loose; spongy”), Dutch voos (“unsound; rotten”). Others, such as Webster's New College Dictionary, suggest a back-formation from fuzzy. The Oxford English Dictionary suggests, “Perhaps imitative of the action of blowing away light particles.”
noun fuzzes
- A frizzy mass of hair or fibre. His cheeks were like peaches, with much the same sort of fuzz over them.
- Quality of an image that is unclear; a blurred image. ...scientific advances happen more often at the frontier of representation, at the edge of resolution where an image dissolves into fuzz and blur.
- The random data used in fuzz testing. "Fuzz testing" or "fuzzing" is a technique for software testing that provides random data ("fuzz") to the inputs of a program.
- A distorted sound, especially from an electric guitar or other amplified instrument. This gives a good soft clipping effect and a good fuzz sound.
- A state of befuddlement. I think I'm in a fuzz, and don't know what I ſay, I never ſaw the like.
- Fuzziness, vagueness.
verb fuzzes · fuzzing · fuzzed
- To make fuzzy.
- To become fuzzy.
- To make drunk. Or maybe my mind was just fuzzed with the drink.
- To test a software component by running it on randomly generated input. Sulley works by fuzzing the first fuzzable field to be fuzzed. While it is iterating through all the values it wants to try for that field, all the other fields are untouched and remain at their default value.
- To fly off in minute particles with a fizzing sound, like water from hot metal.
fuzz²
- /fʌz/
Rhymes with -ʌz
Where it comes from
Unknown. Godfrey Irwin (1930) suggests a possible connection to fuss, "over-particular", excessive bother.
noun
- The police, or any law enforcement agency. Let's get the hell out of here before the fuzz turns up
fuzz³
- /fʌz/
Rhymes with -ʌz
noun
- Misspelling of fuss
Thesaurus
Closest in meaning: hair, bull, blur, pig, tomentum, cop, copper, lint, pull, shoot, chicken, detective, cops, investigator, ieee, friz
Translations
Every language
Talk about this word "fuzz." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/fuzz. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. fuzz. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/fuzz "fuzz." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/fuzz.Cite this
@misc{fuzz_2026,
title = {fuzz},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/fuzz},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
