ho
interjection
(used as a call to attract attention, sometimes specially used after a word denoting a destination).
ho
1 American
[hoh]
/ hoʊ /
interjection
-
(used as a call to attract attention, sometimes specially used after a word denoting a destination).
Westward ho! Land ho!
-
(used as an exclamation of surprise or delight.)
ho
2
American
[hoh]
/ hoʊ /
interjection
ho
3
American
[hoh]
/ hoʊ /
Or
hoe
noun
Slang: Disparaging and Offensive.
-
hos,
plural
-
hoes,
plural
-
ho's
plural
-
a sexually promiscuous woman.
-
a prostitute; whore.
-
a woman.
Ho
4
American
Symbol, Chemistry.
HO
5
American
[hoh]
/ hoʊ /
noun
ho.
6
American
abbreviation
H.O.
7
American
abbreviation
HO
1
British
abbreviation
-
head office
-
government Home Office
ho
2
British
/ həʊ /
interjection
-
Also: ho-ho. an imitation or representation of the sound of a deep laugh
-
an exclamation used to attract attention, announce a destination, etc
what ho!
land ho!
westward ho!
Ho
3
British
symbol
ho
4
British
/ həʊ /
noun
ho.
5
British
abbreviation
Usage
What does ho mean? Not to be confused with hoe (the gardening tool), a ho is an offensive term for a sex worker or a promiscuous woman. Some people use the term to insult women in general while some women have reclaimed the term. What are other forms of ho?hoe
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of ho1
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English; a natural exclamation
Origin of ho2
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English ho, who, from Old French ho, and Old Norse hō; see also whoa
Origin of ho3
First recorded in 1965–70; dialectal or African American Vernacular English pronunciation of whore
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
That wall of sound barrage of guitars and then: “Hey, ho, let’s go!”
From Salon ● Aug. 10, 2026
However, losses may be limited by prospects of more U.S.-Iran ho hostilities that could exacerbate supply disruptions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 29, 2026
It is this that has led Sir Keir and the Foreign Secretary, Yvette Cooper, to give Sir Olly Robbins the heave ho.
From BBC ● Apr. 16, 2026
We learned this week that the committee had voted secretly—oh ho ho!—for the report “to be made public after the House’s final day of votes this year,” as CNN reported.
From Slate ● Dec. 21, 2024
There was no doubt that he was trying to butter up Dad; he even started to laugh like him, a Santa Claus, Jr., with his “Ho, ho, ho.”
From "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou
Str8 is pitching itself as a company that can “build capabilities in situ—in Taiwan for the potential contingency scenarios,” said Ho, referring to the possibility of a Chinese attack.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
Can I celebrate you by going on a birthday hike?’” says Ho.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2026
USC student Julia Ho had been scouring all the sites for months for a particular 1990s Gucci watch she was obsessed with.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 19, 2026
Joe Ho, who also took part in the Hyrox Beijing competition over the weekend, has criticised Hyrox's response to the issue and called on the organisation to "take responsibility when its own procedures fail".
From BBC ● Sep. 14, 2026
We can’t restrain him when he’s angry—and he has his hand on the nuclear button’—and Ho Chi Minh himself will be in Paris in two days begging for peace.”
From "Boots on the Ground: America's War in Vietnam" by Elizabeth Partridge
BAE Systems was the biggest riser, surging 7.9%, followed closely by Saab and Thales HO 3.37%increase; green up pointing triangle , both of which were up 6.1%.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 2, 2026
Surface analysis revealed that ZrN has a very thin layer of HO when it is undergoing ORR.
From Science Daily ● Sep. 21, 2023
YUN HO: “For me it would be our first album that has two title songs that are ‘Pirate King’ and ‘Treasure’.”
From Reuters ● Apr. 29, 2022
Their HO Scale trains and surrounding scenes replicate the Western North Carolina Railroad running from Salisbury, N.C., up to Asheville in the 1950s.
From Washington Post ● Nov. 30, 2021
Thus, he interpreted the interaction of benzene and nitric acid as C6H6 + HNO3 = C6H5NO2 + H2O, the “residues” of benzene being C6H5 and H, and of nitric acid HO and NO2.
From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 6, Slice 1 "Châtelet" to "Chicago" by Various
Hundreds of others danced in circles and sang, “Hey hey, ho ho. White supremacy has got to go.”
From Washington Post ● Aug. 19, 2017
"Hi ho. ho hum, here I am in the middle of Africa," Mark wrote his mother exultantly, typing out a letter on his portable.
From Time Magazine Archive
“Ho ho. Gus Levy, detective. Don’t make me laugh. You probably wrote that letter one day after you won at the track and felt good. I knew it would end like this.”
From "A Confederacy of Dunces" by John Kennedy Toole
“Oh, ho. Another Podgórska. What do you want?”
From "The Light in Hidden Places" by Sharon Cameron
It begins: 'My honorable good Lord, as I have ben always most bound vnto yor ho., so I humbly besech you to stand my good Lord.'
From Devon, Its Moorlands, Streams and Coasts by Rosalind Northcote
“There’s very little in our product portfolio that has benefited from tariffs,” said H.O.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 3, 2026
"It's essential for all of us to work to conserve fireflies," said Dr. Casey Sclar, Ph.D., the H.O.
From Salon ● Sep. 21, 2023
“We want nothing but good things for the museum and its community, and that includes its neighbors,” said David H.O.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 10, 2022
The letter, he added, “was communicated to high levels of the W. H.O. on Tuesday.”
From New York Times ● Mar. 4, 2021
The action of the electric current on a compass needle was discovered by Professor H.O.
From Twentieth Century Socialism What It Is Not; What It Is: How It May Come by Edmond Kelly
What are you doing …?” while the dancers, hand-in-hand in a semicircle, danced a round dance backwards and forwards in front of him with half-suppressed giggles, whispers, smirks, and ho, ho, ho's.
From Royal Highness by Thomas Mann
And right there, right in front of them big ornamental doors, we see Miss G. Washington Flamm, with about a thousand other carriages and wagons and Tally ho's and etcetry, and etcetry.
From Samantha at Saratoga by Marietta Holley
"Weel, Jamie, man, and ho's the wife and the wean the day?" he asked.
From Between You and Me by Sir Harry Lauder
Mr. Potiphar exploded in great ha ha's and ho ho's, from the end of the table.
From The Potiphar Papers by George William Curtis
My appearance upon the door-step was the signal for a burst of deep and long-rolling, "Ho, ho's," and then the ceremony commenced.
From The Great Lone Land A Narrative of Travel and Adventure in the North-West of America by William Francis Butler
Behind her hundreds of people work side by side, hacking into the rocky ground with hoes and shovels.
From BBC ● Aug. 22, 2026
Rescuers used what tools they could scrounge — shovels, hoes, pickaxes, their bare hands.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 9, 2026
It can turn a century-old maker of back hoes and mining trucks into a hot tech stock.
From Barron's ● Jan. 13, 2026
Handheld tools, long-handled hoes, propane weed burners and even goats figure alongside herbicides and their impact on the environment.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 6, 2024
We sat in the fields, from which the dragon had withdrawn its moisture, and sharpened those hoes.
From "The Woman Warrior" by Maxine Hong Kingston
“A lab accident cannot be ruled out until there is sufficient evidence to do so and those results are openly shared,” Tedros and hos co-authors write.
From Science Magazine ● Oct. 13, 2021
Dr. Ralph Tremaglio was on the hos boat with his family when he heard three teenage boys yelling for help.
From Washington Times ● May 28, 2019
Back from Laos to a Manhattan hos pital came Jungle Physician Thomas Dooley, 33, with an apparent recurrence in his spine of the cancer that had originally attacked him in the chest in 1959.
From Time Magazine Archive
Before it was all over, Bingel got 18 pints, all freshly drawn from donors who had waited in the hos pital most of the day.
From Time Magazine Archive
Dats de hos dats got de heaves so bad, heh! heh!
From The Wit and Humor of America, Volume IV. (of X.) by Marshall Pinckney Wilder
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