an extraordinary success.
His act is a real wow.
excitement, interest, great pleasure, or the like.
a car that will add some wow to your life.
Audio. a slow wavering of pitch in sound recording or reproducing equipment caused by uneven speed of the turntable or the tape.
Scot. and North England Dialect. a howl, wail, bark, whine, or mew.
1890–95; perhaps identical with Scots wow! exclamation of surprise or admiration
1800–10 wow 2 for defs. 2, 3; 1930–35 wow 2 for def. 1; imitative; the audio term is probably an independent formation
When you wow your teacher, you get him really excited about your three paragraph essay. To wow is to impress. If you imagine saying, "Wow!" after tasting your friend's coconut cupcakes, you'll understand exactly what the verb wow means. When the cupcakes make you exclaim like that, they wow you. A wonderful movie will wow you, and your dad's juggling act might also wow you. The word wow is Scottish in origin, an amazed interjection from the 1500's. The verb form came along in American slang much later, in the 1920's.
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The Leicester-born Color Wow creative director said: "I'm thrilled to be joining Strictly Come Dancing and coming home to the UK for this incredible experience."
From BBC • Jun. 19, 2026
And she stops and goes, ‘The blue sky. Wow.’
From Los Angeles Times • May 28, 2026
"Wow, that's nice. I've always wanted to live in Buckingham Palace!!!"
From Barron's • Apr. 28, 2026
This is how naive I was: I thought, Wow, that’s great.
From Slate • Mar. 29, 2026
He loved the new quietness of his footsteps as he trotted Bow Wow through the early morning streets.
From "Maniac Magee" by Jerry Spinelli
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
