English Explanatory Dictionary

whoa

English dictionary entry

Meanings

intj
  1. Stop (especially when commanding a horse or imitative thereof); calm down; slow down.
  2. An expression of surprise.
  3. Used as a meaningless filler in song lyrics.
verb
  1. To attempt to slow (an animal) by crying "whoa".

Pronunciation

/wəʊ/ /ʍəʊ/ wō hwō /woʊ/ /ʍoʊ/ en-us-whoa.ogg En-us-woe.ogg

Word forms

whoa woa woah whoah whoas whoaing whoaed

Etymology

Whoa (c. 1843) is a variant of woa (c. 1840), itself a variant of wo (c. 1787), from who (c. 1450), ultimately from Middle English ho, hoo (interjection), probably from Old Norse hó! (interjection, also, a shepherd's call). Compare German ho, Old French ho ! (“hold!, halt!”).

Antonyms

giddyup giddap

Derived words

whoa back whoa, Nelly
This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.
Back to search All on W Russian dictionary Dahl dictionary