oh

English Online Dictionary. What means oh‎? What does oh mean?

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əʊ/
• (Yorkshire) IPA^(key): [ö̞]
• (US) IPA^(key): /oʊ/
• Homophones: o, O, owe
• Rhymes: -əʊ

Etymology 1

Inherited from Middle English o.

Interjection

oh

1. Expression of surprise.

2. Expression of wonder, amazement, or awe.

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

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

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

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).
8. Expression of pain. See ouch.
9. Space filler or extra syllable, especially in (popular) music.
10. (interrogative) Expression of mild scepticism.

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

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

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

Related terms

Translations

Noun

oh (plural ohs)

1. An utterance of oh; a spoken expression of surprise, acknowledgement, etc.

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.

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.

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)

Derived terms

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

Translations

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/

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/
• 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/

Interjection

oh

1. oh

Hokkien

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

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

• 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

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