hey

English

Alternative forms

• hay

Etymology

From Middle English hey, hei, cognate with Dutch he, hei (“hi, hey”), German hei (“hey, wow”), Danish and Swedish hej (“hello, hey”), Faroese hey (“hey, hello”), Icelandic hei (“hey”), see heigh. Probably a natural expression, as may be inferred from its presence with similar meaning in many other unrelated languages: for example, Burmese ဟေး (hei), Finnish hei, Unami hè, and Mandarin Chinese 哎 (āi), and various sound-alikes as Roman eho, Greek εἴα (eia), Latin eia.

Pronunciation

• enPR: hā, IPA: /heɪ/, SAMPA: /heI/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophone: hay
• Rhymes: -eɪ

Interjection

hey

1. An exclamation to get attention.

   Hey, look at this!

2. A protest or reprimand.

   Hey! Stop that!

3. An expression of surprise.

   Hey! This is new!

4. An informal greeting, similar to hi (used in the US, Australia and Canada).

   Hey! How's it going?

5. A request for repetition or explanation; an expression of confusion (see also eh).

   Hey? How's that?

6. A meaningless beat marker or extra, filler syllable in musical lyrics.

   The chorus is "nana na na, nana na na hey hey hey, good bye"

Related terms

• heyda, heyday
• what the hey
• hey up

Translations

exclamation to get attention

Arabic: ياه (ar) (yaah) Belarusian: гэй (be) (hej), эй (be) (ej) Chinese: Mandarin: 喂 (cmn) (wèi), 哎 (cmn) (āi), 嗨 (cmn) (hāi), 嘿 (cmn) (hēi) Czech: hele (cs) Dutch: he, he daar Filipino: hoy, uy/ui, oi Finnish: hei (fi) French: hé (fr) German: Hallo (de) Hindi: अरे (hi) (arē), अजी (hi) (ajī), हे (hi) (hē), रे (hi) (rē) Italian: ehi (it)

Japanese: おい (ja) (oi), ねえ (ja) (nē) Latgalian: dzie, klaus Latin: salve (la), salvete (la) pl. Latvian: klau (lv), eu (lv) Portuguese: ei (pt) Romanian: hei (ro) Russian: эй (ru) (ej) Scottish Gaelic: hòigh (gd) Spanish: oye (es), hey (es) Tagalog: hoy, uy Ukrainian: гей (uk) (hej), ей (uk) (ej)

protest or reprimand

Dutch: he, hela, ho, hola, homaar Filipino: hoy Finnish: hei (fi) French: hé (fr) Italian: ehi (it)

Portuguese: ei (pt), epa (pt), opa (pt) Russian: эй (ru) (ej) Spanish: oye (es) Tagalog: hoy

expression of surprise

Dutch: he (nl), heh (nl), huh (nl) Filipino: hoy, uy/ui, talaga, a/ah Finnish: oh-hoh

Portuguese: epa (pt), opa (pt) Romanian: hop (ro) Russian: ой (ru) (oj), ух ты (ru) (ux ty), ого (ru) (ogó, ohó)

informal greeting

Chinese: Mandarin: 嗨 (zh) Dutch: hoi (nl) Filipino: hoy, uy/ui, oi, ei Finnish: hei (fi), terve (fi), moro (fi)

French: coucou (fr) Polish: hej (pl) Portuguese: oi (pt) Scottish Gaelic: hòigh (gd) Tagalog: hoy, uy

request for repetition or explanation

Filipino: uy/ui, ei Finnish: hei (fi)

Portuguese: hã, hem Tagalog: uy

meaningless beat marker, filler syllable

Finnish: hei (fi) Portuguese: é, hey

Tagalog: hoy, uy

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

Bulgarian: zdrasti, здрасти French: hé, eh, hep

Slovene: hej, ej Spanish: ¡eh!, Swedish: hallå (1, 2, 3, 4, 5), tja (4), hej (4, 6), hej hå (6)

See also

• Huh

• Hey on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Noun

hey (plural heys)

1. (country dancing) A choreographic figure in which the dancers weave between one another.

Translations

country dancing figure

Danish: hej (da)

Dutch: hey (nl)

Anagrams

• yeh

---

Faroese

Interjection

hey

1. hi, hey, hello

   hey aftur! - hello again!

Synonyms

• halló
• góðan morgun
• góðan dag
• gott kvøld

Antonyms

• farvæl
• vit síggjast