uh

See also: uH, Uh, -uh, ùh, ūh, and ưh

English

Etymology

Onomatopoeia of the natural expression of thought. Compare with er.

Pronunciation

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• IPA^(key): /ʌː/
• Rhymes: -ʌ

Interjection

uh

1. Expression of thought, confusion, or uncertainty.

   Uh, who was that?

2. Space filler or pause during conversation.

   Uh, let me see...

Usage notes

• May be extended by repeating the letter u or h to express increasingly severe confusion:

Uuuuh / Uhhhh, right, that makes sense, I guess.

Related terms

• huh-uh
• nuh-uh
• uh-huh
• uh-uh
• unh-uh
• yuh-uh

 

Translations

expression of confusion or uncertainty

• Catalan: eh (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 呃 (zh) (è, e)

• Danish: øh, øm, øhm
• Finnish: ööh
• French: euh (fr)
• German: äh (de)
• Italian: uh, boh (it)
• Japanese: あのう (ja) (anō), ええと (ēto), え (ja) (e), うーん (ūn)
• Korean: 저어 (ko) (jeo'eo)
• Malay: err
• Norwegian: eh, øh
• Portuguese: hã
• Romanian: ă (ro)
• Russian: гм (ru) (gm), гм (ru) (hm), хм (ru) (xm) (the actual pronunciation may not be close to the spelling)
• Spanish: eh (es)
• Tagalog: ah, eh

space filler or pause during conversation

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 呃 (zh) (è, e), 啊 (zh) (ā), 那個 / 那个 (zh) (nàge, nèige), 這個 / 这个 (zh) (zhège, zhèige)

• Danish: øh, øm
• Dutch: euhm (nl), euh (nl)
• Finnish: ööh, tuota (fi)
• French: euh (fr)
• German: äh (de)
• Greek: ε (el) (e)
• Hungarian: ő (hu)
• Italian: uh
• Japanese: あのう (ja) (anō), ええと (ēto), えー (ē), うーん (ūn)
• Korean: 어 (ko) (eo), 저어 (ko) (jeo'eo)
• Malay: err
• Navajo: éiyá
• Norwegian: eh, øh
• Portuguese: hã, é (pt)
• Russian: э-э-э (ru) (e-e-e), э-э (ru) (e-e), ну (ru) (nu)
• Serbo-Croatian: ovaj
• Spanish: eh (es), este (es)
• Swedish: eh, öh (sv)
• Tagalog: ah, eh
• Vietnamese: ờ (vi)

See also

• er
• erm
• um
• uh-oh
• oh

Noun

uh (plural uhs)

1. An occurrence of the interjection "uh".
   • 2007 August 24, William Grimes, “Uh, Lead My Rips: No More Bloopers”, in New York Times‎^[1]:

     Although Shakespeare refers to “hums and ha’s,” sifting through etiquette manuals and public-speaking guides turns up scant evidence of a prohibition against ums, ers and uhs, which are profuse in the first recording of Thomas Edison’s voice, in 1888. Mr. Erard, rather ingeniously, traces the prohibition on um and other speech flaws to the advent of radio in the early 1920s.

Anagrams

• HU, Hu, hu

Dutch

Pronunciation

• Audio:

  (file)

Interjection

uh

1. er, uh

   Synonyms: eh, ehm, um

Epigraphic Mayan

Noun

uh

1. (astronomy) moon

Juǀ'hoan

Pronunciation

• The murmured vowel IPA^(key): /ṳ/

Letter

uh (upper case Uh)

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

Romanian

Interjection

uh

1. Obsolete form of uf.

References

• uh in Academia Română, Micul dicționar academic, ediția a II-a, Bucharest: Univers Enciclopedic, 2010. →ISBN

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /u/, /uː/
• Homophone: u

Interjection

uh

1. used to express disappointment or disdain

Further reading

• “uh”, 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

Sumerian

Romanization

uh

1. Romanization of 𒄴 (uḫ)

Yucatec Maya

Noun

uh

1. moon

Related terms

• chiʼibal uh