oh

See also: Appendix:Variations of "oh"

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əʊ/

• Audio (Received Pronunciation):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /oʊ/

• Audio (General American, surprise):

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• Audio (General American, realization):

  (file)

• Audio (General American, male voice):

  (file)

• Audio (US, female voice):

  (file)

• Homophones: o, O, owe
• Rhymes: -əʊ

Etymology 1

Inherited from Middle English o.

Interjection

oh

1. Expression of surprise.

   Oh! I didn't see you there.

2. Expression of wonder, amazement, or awe.

   Oh, wow! That's amazing.

3. Expression of understanding, affirmation, recognition, or realization.

   Oh, so that's how it works.

4. A word to precede an offhand or annoyed remark.

   Oh, leave me alone.

5. A word to precede an added comment or afterthought.

   Oh, and don't forget your coat.

6. An invocation or address (similar to the vocative in languages with noun declension), often with a term of endearment.

   Oh, gosh

   • 1998, Max Martin, ...Baby One More Time (song performed by Britney Spears)

     Oh baby, baby, how was I supposed to know / That something wasn't right here?

7. Exclamation for drama or emphasis (often poetic).

   Oh, when will it end?

   • 1703, Lawrence Smith, The Evidence of Things Not Seen, page 143:

     And oh how stingingly acute, and pungently grievous and tormentive, are the remembrancing Reflections of a separate uncloathed Soul in the other World, upon a review of its mad Choice, foolish Hopes, fruitless Desires […]

   • 1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], The Historie of the World […], London: […] William Stansby for Walter Burre, […], →OCLC, (please specify |book=1 to 5):

     Oh, by what plots, by what forswearings, betrayings, oppressions, imprisonments, tortures, poisonings, and under what reasons of state and politic subtilty, have these forenamed kings […] pulled the vengeance of God upon themselves […]

8. Expression of pain. See ouch.

   Oh! That hurt.

   • 1749, [John Cleland], “(Please specify the letter or volume)”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC:

     "Oh! . . . oh! . . . I can't bear it . . . It is too much . . . I die . . . I am going . . ." were Polly's expressions of extasy

9. Space filler or extra syllable, especially in (popular) music.
   • 1968, MacKinlay Kantor, Beauty Beast:

     I'm off with the raggle-taggle gypsy-oh.

10. (interrogative) Expression of mild scepticism.

    "You should watch where you're going!" "Oh?"

11. A word to mark a spoken phrase as imaginary.

    What if he says "Oh, I need to see your ID"?

Alternative forms

Particularly in the context of Internet conversations, "oh" is sometimes written with additional Os or Hs - for example, ohhh. See also ooh.

Derived terms

• oh ar
• oh boy
• oh dear
• oh girl
• oh God
• oh hell
• oh joy
• oh man
• oh me of little faith
• oh me oh my
• oh my
• oh my Allah
• oh my days
• oh my fuck
• oh my God
• oh my Goddess
• oh my gods
• oh my goodness
• oh my goodness gracious
• oh my gosh
• oh my heck
• oh my hell
• oh my lanta
• oh my life
• oh my Lord
• oh my stars
• oh my word
• oh my Zeus
• oh no
• oh noes
• oh oh
• oh really
• oh snap
• oh so
• oh well
• oh worm
• oh yeah
• oh ye of little faith
• uh oh
• why oh why

 

Related terms

• ah
• o
• O
• ooh
• uh-oh

 

Translations

expression of surprise

• Afrikaans: o (af)
• Arabic: وَا (wā), يَا (ar) (yā), أُوه (ʔūh), أُوه (ʔūh)

  Egyptian Arabic: لاااا (laaa), ياااا (yaaa)

• Armenian: ահ (hy) (ah), օհ (hy) (ōh)
• Chickasaw: aa, kii
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 哎呀 (zh) (āiyā), 哎哟 (zh) (āiyō), (different tone expresses different level of surprise) 哦 (zh) (o, ò, ó), 呵 (zh) (hē), 嗯 (zh) (ēn)

• Czech: ach (cs)
• Danish: åh (da)
• Dutch: o (nl)
• Esperanto: ho (eo), aĥ (eo), hu (eo)
• Finnish: oi (fi), oho (fi)
• French: oh (fr), ah (fr)
• Galician: oh, ó (gl)
• Georgian: ოჰ (oh), ახ (ax)
• German: ach (de), oh (de)
• Greek: ω (el) (o), α (el) (a)
• Hiligaynon: abáo
• Hindi: अरे (hi) (are), हे (hi) (he), ओ (hi) (o)
• Hungarian: aj (hu)
• Icelandic: ó (is)
• Japanese: あら (ja) (ara), おや (ja) (oya), まあ (ja) (maa), ああ (ja) (aa), へえ (hee), お (ja) (o), あ (ja) (a)
• Korean: 아 (ko) (a), 오 (ko) (o), 어 (ko) (eo)
• Latgalian: oi, ai, ek, a
• Latin: eheu (la), ō (la)
• Latvian: ak
• Malay: oh (ms)
• Manchu: ᠣ (o)
• Manx: ugh
• Maori: hā
• Mari:

  Eastern Mari: а (a)

• Mon: ဩ (mnw)
• Norwegian: oi, å (no), ai (no)
• Persian: اه (fa) (oh), آه (fa), آه (fa)
• Polish: och (pl), ach (pl)
• Portuguese: ó (pt)
• Romanian: o (ro), oh (ro), of (ro)
• Russian: о (ru) (o), ой (ru) (oj), ах (ru) (ax), ох (ru) (ox), ого́ (ru) (ohó), ого́ (ru) (ogó)
• Sanskrit: अहो (sa) (aho) (for joyful or painful surprise), हा (sa) (hā), ओ (sa) (o) (in common speech, informally)
• Serbo-Croatian: oj (sh)
• Spanish: oh (es), ai (es)
• Swahili: ee, lo, loo, o
• Swedish: åh (sv), å (sv), oj (sv) jaså (sv)
• Tagalog: ay (tl)
• Tibetan: ཨ་ཙི (a tsi), ཨ་མ (a ma), ཨ་མ་མ (a ma ma)
• Turkish: please add this translation if you can
• Tuvan: о (o)
• Urdu: آہ (ur) (āh) (ʾāh)
• Venetan: vèrceghe (vec), pòrco can
• Vietnamese: ồ (vi), ôi (vi), ối (vi)
• Welsh: o
• Yakut: оо (oo)
• Yiddish: אָ! (o!)

expression of wonder, amazement, or awe

• Czech: ó (cs)
• Danish: åh (da)
• Swedish: oj (sv), å (sv), åh (sv)
• Tibetan: ཨ་ཙི (a tsi), ཨ་མ (a ma), ཨ་མ་མ (a ma ma), ཨ་ཧ (a ha), ཨེ་མ་ཧོ (e ma ho), ཨ་ལ་ལ (a la la)

expression of understanding

• Arabic: آه (ar) (ʔāh)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 哦 (zh) (ō, o); 噢 (zh) (ō)

• Czech: aha (cs), ach (cs)
• Finnish: ai (fi), aa (fi)
• Galician: ah (gl)
• Manchu: ᠣ (o)
• Mongolian: өө (mn) (öö)
• Portuguese: ah (pt)
• Russian: а (ru) (a), ага (ru) (aga)
• Swedish: jaha (sv)
• Tibetan: ཨ་ལས (a las)

vocative

• Arabic: يَا (yā), أَيْ (ʔay)
• Danish: o (da)
• French: ô (fr)
• Galician: ou (gl), ho (gl)
• Tibetan: ཀྱེ (kye), ཀྱཻ (kyai)

Noun

oh (plural ohs)

1. An utterance of oh; a spoken expression of surprise, acknowledgement, etc.
   • 2011, Seabert Parsons, The Lost Codex of Palenque, page 240:

     There were ohs and ahs, and the people twisted about as they looked for her. Then they began to applaud.

Verb

oh (third-person singular simple present ohs, present participle ohing, simple past and past participle ohed)

1. (intransitive) To utter the interjection oh; to express surprise, etc.
   • 1852, Merry's museum and Parley's magazine, volumes 23-24, page 46:

     A quarter of an hour elapsed, and then, after several rings at the door-bell, a smothered laugh, and a good deal of ohing and ahing, the door was thrown open, and one by one, as they were announced, in came the expected characters.

Etymology 2

From Middle English o, oo, from Old English ō, from Latin ō.

Noun

oh (plural ohs)

2. The name of the Latin-script letter O/o.
   • 2006, Ben Bova, Titan, page 33:

     One genuine recycled local glass of aitch-two-oh

   • 2011, Shallon Lester, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     Exes and Ohs: A Downtown Girl's (Mostly Awkward) Tales of Love, Lust, Revenge, and a Little Facebook Stalking

Alternative forms

• o (more common)

Derived terms

• Oh Em Gee, oh em gee, oh-em-gee
• oh zee, oh-zee, ohzee

Etymology 3

From o (“zero”).

Noun

oh (plural ohs)

2. the digit 0 (especially in representations of speech)

   My telephone number is four-double-three-two-oh-nine.

Derived terms

• four oh four
• oh dark hundred
• oh dark thirty, oh-dark-thirty

Translations

the digit zero in speech

• Danish: nul (da) n
• Japanese: 〇 (ja) (maru)
• Korean: 공 (ko) (gong)
• Malay: kosong (ms)
• Swedish: noll (sv)
• Welsh: dim (cy)

Anagrams

• 'ho, HO, Ho, H₂O, h/o, ho

Aragonese

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈo/
• Rhymes: -o
• Syllabification: oh

Interjection

oh

1. oh (expression of surprise, etc.)

Bahnar

Etymology

From Proto-Bahnaric *ʔɔh.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʔɔh/

Noun

oh

1. younger sibling

Catalan

Interjection

oh

1. oh (expression of surprise, etc.)

Dutch

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /oː/

• Audio:

  (file)

Interjection

oh

1. oh

Finnish

Noun

oh

1. (housing) Abbreviation of olohuone (“living room”).

Further reading

• “oh”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[1] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2023-07-03

French

Etymology

Onomatopoeic; compare Latin ō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /o/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -o

Interjection

oh

1. oh

Derived terms

• oh là là
• oh non

Further reading

• “oh”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

Galician

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈɔː]

Interjection

oh

1. oh (expression of surprise, etc.)

   Synonym: ó

References

• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “oh”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “oh”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
• Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “oh”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /oː/

• Audio:

  (file)

Interjection

oh

1. oh

Hokkien

For pronunciation and definitions of oh – see 惡 (“evil; wicked; foul; fierce; hostile; ferocious; etc.”). (This term is the pe̍h-ōe-jī form of 惡).

Hungarian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˈo], [ˈox]
• Rhymes: -o, -ox

Interjection

oh

1. oh!

Ingrian

Pronunciation

• (Ala-Laukaa) IPA^(key): /ˈoh/, [ˈo̞h]
• (Soikkola) IPA^(key): /ˈoh/, [ˈo̞h]
• Rhymes: -oh
• Hyphenation: oh

Interjection

oh

1. Expression of surprise: oh!

Derived terms

• ohahtaa

 

References

• Ruben E. Nirvi (1971) Inkeroismurteiden Sanakirja, Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, page 359

Juǀ'hoan

Pronunciation

• The murmured vowel IPA^(key): /o̤/

Letter

oh (upper case Oh)

1. A letter of the Juǀ'hoan alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Latin

Interjection

ōh!

1. oh! ah!

   Synonym: ō!

Pohnpeian

Conjunction

oh

1. and

Portuguese

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /ˈɔ/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ˈɔ/

• Hyphenation: oh

Interjection

oh

1. Alternative form of ó

Romanian

Interjection

oh

1. Alternative form of of

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈo/ [ˈo]
• Rhymes: -o
• Homophones: o, ó

Interjection

oh

1. oh (expression of awe, surprise, pain or realization)

Related terms

• ah
• eh

 

Further reading

• “oh”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 2024 December 10

Tagalog

Pronunciation

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ʔo/ [ʔo]
• Rhymes: -o
• Syllabification: oh

Particle

oh (Baybayin spelling ᜂ)

1. Alternative spelling of o

Interjection

oh (Baybayin spelling ᜂ)

1. Alternative spelling of o

Anagrams

• Ho, ho

Zaghawa

Noun

oh

1. milk

References

Beria-English English-Beria Dictionary [provisional] ADESK, Iriba, Kobe Department, Chad