oh

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əʊ/

• Audio (Received Pronunciation):

  (file)

• (US) IPA^(key): /oʊ/

• Audio (General American, surprise):

  (file)

• Audio (General American, realization):

  (file)

• Homophones: o, O, owe
• Rhymes: -əʊ

Inherited from Middle English o.

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, 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"?

Particularly in the context of Internet conversations, "oh" is sometimes written with additional Os or Hs - for example, ohhh. See also ooh.

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.

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.

From Middle English o, oo, from Old English ō, from Latin ō.

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

• o (more common)

• Oh Em Gee, oh em gee, oh-em-gee
• oh zee, oh-zee, ohzee

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”).

oh (plural ohs)

2. the digit 0 (especially in representations of speech)

   My telephone number is four-double-three-two-oh-nine.

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

• 'ho, HO, Ho, H₂O, h/o, ho

• IPA^(key): /ˈo/
• Rhymes: -o
• Syllabification: oh

oh

1. oh (expression of surprise, etc.)

From Proto-Bahnaric *ʔɔh.

• IPA^(key): /ʔɔh/

oh

1. younger sibling

oh

1. oh (expression of surprise, etc.)

• IPA^(key): /oː/

• Audio:

  (file)

oh

1. oh

oh

1. (housing) Abbreviation of olohuone (“living room”).

• “oh”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja‎^[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

Onomatopoeic; compare Latin ō.

• IPA^(key): /o/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -o

oh

1. oh

• oh là là
• oh non

• “oh”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.

• IPA^(key): [ˈɔː]

oh

1. oh (expression of surprise, etc.)

   Synonym: ó

• Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “oh”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega (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

• IPA^(key): /oː/

• Audio:

  (file)

oh

1. oh

• IPA^(key): [ˈo], [ˈox]
• Rhymes: -o, -ox

oh

1. oh!

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

oh

1. Expression of surprise: oh!

• Ruben E. Nirvi (1971) Inkeroismurteiden Sanakirja, Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, page 359

• The murmured vowel IPA^(key): /o̤/

oh (upper case Oh)

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

ōh!

1. oh! ah!

   Synonym: ō!

oh

1. and

• Hyphenation: oh

oh

1. Alternative form of ó

oh

1. Alternative form of of

• IPA^(key): /ˈo/ [ˈo]
• Rhymes: -o
• Homophones: o, ó

oh

1. oh (expression of awe, surprise, pain or realization)

• “oh”, in Diccionario de la lengua española (in Spanish), online version 23.7, Royal Spanish Academy, 2023 November 28

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /ʔo/ [ʔo]
• Rhymes: -o
• Syllabification: oh

oh (Baybayin spelling ᜂ)

1. Alternative spelling of o

oh (Baybayin spelling ᜂ)

1. Alternative spelling of o

• Ho, ho

oh

1. milk

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