woe

English

Etymology

From Middle English wo, wei, wa, from Old English wā, wēa, from Proto-Germanic *wai, whence also Dutch wee, German weh, Danish ve. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wai. Compare Latin vae.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA: /wəʊ/, X-SAMPA: /w@U/
• (US) enPR: wō, IPA: /woʊ/, X-SAMPA: /woU/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊ
• Homophone: whoa (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

Noun

woe (plural woes)

1. grief; sorrow; misery; heavy calamity.

Translations

grief; sorrow; misery; heavy calamity

• Finnish: suru (fi), tuska (fi)
• French: tristesse (fr) f, douleur (fr) f, misère (fr) f, malheur (fr) m
• German: Weh (de) n, Jammer (de) m, Kummer (de) m, Leid (de) n
• Hebrew: אבוי (he) (avoy), צער (he) (tsa'ar) m, יגון (he) (yagon) m
• Italian: dolore (it) m, disgrazia (it) f, guaio (it) m
• Norwegian: sorg (no) m
• Polish: nieszczęście (pl) n, żałość (pl) f, cierpienie (pl), niedola (pl)

• Portuguese: desgraça (pt) f, infelicidade (pt) f, mágoa (pt) f
• Romanian: durere (ro) f, suferință (ro) f, mâhnire (ro) f
• Russian: печаль (ru) (pečálʹ) f , грусть (ru) (grustʹ) f 
• Scottish Gaelic: dòlas (gd) m, truaighe (gd) f, sgad (gd) m
• Spanish: pena (es) f
• Swedish: sorg (sv), ve (sv)
• Turkish: dert (tr), gam (tr), keder (tr), teessür (tr), üzüntü (tr)

Derived terms

• in weal or woe
• woeful

Adjective

woe (comparative more woe, superlative most woe)

1. (obsolete) woeful; sorrowful
   • Robert of Brunne

     His clerk was woe to do that deed.

   • Chaucer

     Woe was this knight and sorrowfully he sighed.

   • Spenser

     And looking up he waxed wondrous woe.

Anagrams

• owe