oh

See also: Appendix:Variations of "oh"

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əʊ/

• Audio (Received Pronunciation):

  (file)

• (Yorkshire) IPA^(key): [ö̞]
• (US) IPA^(key): /oʊ/

• Audio (General American, surprise):

  (file)

• Audio (General American, realization):

  (file)

• Audio (General American, male voice):

  (file)

• Audio (General American, 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 gods
• 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
• ohmygosh
• 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
• soot-oh
• uh oh
• uhoh
• 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)
• Bulgarian: о (bg) (o), ах (ah)
• 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), ay (es), ou (es)
• Swahili: ee (sw), lo, loo, o (sw)
• 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: aman (tr)
• 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

• Bulgarian: еха (bg) (eha)
• 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)
• Bulgarian: а (bg) (a)
• 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 (ar) (yā), أَيْ (ar) (ʔay)
• Bulgarian: о (bg) (o), ах (ah) (threat/disappointment/)
• 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”), extended use of letter O name based on similar shape of the number 0.

Noun

oh (plural ohs)

2. The digit 0 (especially in representations of speech)
   • 2010, Sal Mangano, “Chapter 1: Numerics”, in Mathematica Cookbook‎^[1], O'Reilly Media, →ISBN, page 1:

     Jenny I've got your number. I need to make you mine. Jenny don't change your number. Eight six seven five three oh nine. Eight six seven five three oh nine. Eight six seven five three oh nine. Eight six seven five three oh nine. Tommy Tutone, "867-5309/Jenny"

   • 2015, John Renehan, The Valley: A Novel‎^[2], Penguin Publishing Group, →ISBN:

     "Oh-dark-thirty," the first soldier muttered without looking at his watch.

Derived terms

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

Translations

the digit zero in speech

• Bulgarian: нула (bg) f (nula)
• 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/
• Syllabification: oh
• Rhymes: -o

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]‎^[3] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 3 July 2023

French

Etymology

Onomatopoeic; compare Latin ō.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /o/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Audio (France (Vosges)):

  (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 (Germany (Berlin)):

  (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/, [ˈo̞ɣ̥]
• 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

Interjection

oh

1. alternative spelling 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], 10 December 2024

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

Turkish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈoh/

Interjection

oh

1. Exclamation of relief, joy, admiration, liking etc.

Zaghawa

Noun

oh

1. milk

References

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