whoa

English

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /wəʊ/, X-SAMPA: /w@U/ or IPA: /ʍəʊ/, X-SAMPA: /W@U/
• (US) enPR: wō, IPA: /woʊ/, X-SAMPA: /woU/ or enPR: hwō, IPA: /ʍoʊ/, X-SAMPA: /WoU/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  Rhymes: -əʊ

• Homophone: woe (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

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!”).

Interjection

whoa

1. stop (especially when commanding a horse or imitative thereof); calm down; slow down.

   Whoa, Nelly!

2. An expression of surprise.

   Whoa, are you serious?

Usage notes

Another alternate spelling from woa, woah (c. 1856), is common, especially on the internet.

Antonyms

• (stop, said to a horse): giddyup, giddy-up, giddap

Translations

stop, said to a horse

• Catalan: xo (ca)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 吁 (cmn) (xū), 遏 (cmn) (è)

• Finnish: ptruu (fi)
• French: ho (fr), holà (fr), stop (fr)
• German: brr (de)
• Hungarian: hó (hu)

• Japanese: どう (ja) (dō), どうどう (ja) (dōdō)
• Malay: hoi (ms)
• Polish: prr (pl)
• Russian: тпру (ru) (tpru), пру (ru) (pru), стоп (ru) (stop)
• Spanish: so (es)
• Swedish: ptrr (sv)

slow down

• Malay: hoi (ms)

expression of surprise

• Finnish: oho (fi)

• Malay: hoi (ms)