oh

• (UK) IPA^(key): /əʊ/

• Audio (Received Pronunciation):

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

• Audio (General American, surprise):

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• Audio (General American, realization):

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• Audio (General American, male voice):

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• Audio (General American, female voice):

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• 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 annoyed remark.

   Oh, leave me alone.

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

   Oh, and don't forget your coat.

   What if he says, "Oh, I need to see your ID"?

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. (often poetic) Exclamation for drama or emphasis.

   Oh, when will it end?

   • 1614, Walter Ralegh [i.e., Walter Raleigh], “The Preface”, in The Historie of the World […], London: […] William Stansby for Walter Burre, […], →OCLC:

     Oh by what plots, by what forſwearings, betrayings, oppreſsions, impriſonments, tortures, poyſonings, and vnder what reaſons of State, and politique ſubteltie, haue theſe forenamed Kings, […] pulled the vengeance of GOD vpon them-ſelues, […]

   • 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 […]

8. Expression of pain. See ouch.

   Oh! That hurt.

   • 1749, [John Cleland], “[Letter the First]”, in Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure [Fanny Hill], volume I, London: […] [Thomas Parker] for G. Fenton [i.e., Fenton and Ralph Griffiths] […], →OCLC, page 83:

     "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?"

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

From o (“zero”), extended use of letter O name based on similar shape of the number 0.

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.

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

• 'ho, HO, Ho, H₂O, h/o, ho

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

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 [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

Onomatopoeic; compare Latin ō.

• IPA^(key): /o/

• Audio:

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• Audio (France (Vosges)):

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• 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 [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

• IPA^(key): /oː/

• Audio (Germany (Berlin)):

  (file)

oh

1. oh

For pronunciation and definitions of oh – see 惡 (“evil; wicked; foul; fierce; hostile; ferocious; cruel; overbearing; domineering; over-strict; etc.”). (This term is the pe̍h-ōe-jī form of 惡).

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

oh

1. oh!

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

oh

1. expression of surprise: oh!

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

Onomatopoeic; compare Latin ō.

• IPA^(key): /ˈo/
• Rhymes: -o
• Hyphenation: óh

oh

1. oh

• 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

• Rehg, Kenneth L.; Sohl, Damian G. (1979), Ponapean-English Dictionary, Honolulu: The University Press of Hawaii, →ISBN, page 18

oh

1. alternative spelling of ó

• “oh”, in Dicionário Aulete Digital (in Portuguese), Rio de Janeiro: Lexikon Editora Digital, 2008–2026
• “oh”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

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 [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025

• (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

• IPA^(key): /ˈoh/

oh

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

oh

1. milk

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