# oh
## English
### Pronunciation

* (UK) IPA: /əʊ/
* Audio (Received Pronunciation):(file)
* (Yorkshire) IPA: [ö̞]
* (US) IPA: /oʊ/
* Audio (General American, surprise):(file)
* 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
* Expression of surprise.
    Oh! I didn't see you there.
* Expression of wonder, amazement, or awe.
    Oh, wow! That's amazing.
* Expression of understanding, affirmation, recognition, or realization.
    Oh, so that's how it works.
* A word to precede an offhand or annoyed remark.
    Oh, leave me alone.
* A word to precede an added comment or afterthought.
    Oh, and don't forget your coat.
* 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?
* 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 […]
* 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
* Space filler or extra syllable, especially in (popular) music.
** 1968, MacKinlay Kantor, Beauty Beast:I'm off with the raggle-taggle gypsy-oh.
* (interrogative) Expression of mild scepticism.
    "You should watch where you're going!" "Oh?"
* 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
#### Noun

oh (plural ohs)
* 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)
* (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)
* 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

* This entry needs quotations to illustrate usage. If you come across any interesting, durably archived quotes then please add them! Particularly: “digit 0 sense”
From o (“zero”).

#### Noun

oh (plural ohs)
* the digit 0 (especially in representations of speech)
    My telephone number is four-double-three-two-oh-nine.
    .08 reads point oh eight.

##### 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: /ˈo/
* Rhymes: -o
* Syllabification: oh

### Interjection

oh
* oh (expression of surprise, etc.)

## Bahnar
### Etymology

From Proto-Bahnaric *ʔɔh.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ʔɔh/

### Noun

oh
* younger sibling

## Catalan
### Interjection

oh
* oh (expression of surprise, etc.)

## Dutch
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /oː/
* Audio:(file)

### Interjection

oh
* oh

## Finnish
### Noun

oh
* (housing) Abbreviation of olohuone (“living room”).

### Further reading

* “oh”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎ (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: /o/
* Audio:(file)
* Rhymes: -o

### Interjection

oh
* 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: [ˈɔː]

### Interjection

oh
* 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: /oː/
* Audio:(file)

### Interjection

oh
* 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: [ˈo], [ˈox]
* Rhymes: -o, -ox

### Interjection

oh
* oh!

## Ingrian
### Pronunciation

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

### Interjection

oh
* 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: /o̤/

### Letter

oh (upper case Oh)
* A letter of the Juǀ'hoan alphabet, written in the Latin script.

## Latin
### Interjection

ōh!
* oh! ah!
    Synonym: ō!

## Pohnpeian
### Conjunction

oh
* and

## Portuguese
### Pronunciation

* (Brazil) IPA: /ˈɔ/
* (Portugal) IPA: /ˈɔ/
* Hyphenation: oh

### Interjection

oh
* Alternative form of ó

## Romanian
### Interjection

oh
* Alternative form of of

## Spanish
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /ˈo/ [ˈo]
* Rhymes: -o
* Homophones: o, ó

### Interjection

oh
* 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: /ʔo/ [ʔo]
* Rhymes: -o
* Syllabification: oh

### Particle

oh (Baybayin spelling ᜂ)
* Alternative spelling of o

### Interjection

oh (Baybayin spelling ᜂ)
* Alternative spelling of o

### Anagrams

* Ho, ho

## Zaghawa
### Noun

oh
* milk

### References

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