(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.)
a sexually promiscuous woman.
a prostitute; whore.
a woman.
head office
government Home Office
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!
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
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English; a natural exclamation
First recorded in 1300–50; Middle English ho, who, from Old French ho, and Old Norse hō; see also whoa
First recorded in 1965–70; dialectal or African American Vernacular English pronunciation of whore
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
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
“Hey hey, ho ho, tuition hikes have got to go!” chanted a group of student government leaders and supporters gathered outside the building who wore red shirts with the words, “locked out of UC.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 19, 2025
We can hear his booming “ho, ho, ho” now.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 26, 2025
The mood fluctuates between ho ho ho and ho hum.
From New York Times ● Nov. 27, 2024
“No, signorino. No, no. He was so frightened of an Austrian. Ho ho ho.”
From "A Farewell To Arms" by Ernest Hemingway
On ICYMI, host Kate Lindsay and Slate tech editor Tony Ho Tran break down the digital do’s and don’ts for couples, and argue that the thing that ruined dating might actually be making relationships better.
From Slate ● Jul. 22, 2026
He would like his next film project — other than the Matt Johnson and Bong Joon Ho projects he’s already committed to, of course — to be something more “personal.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 14, 2026
“It is very challenging for the government to look at all these small- and medium-sized factories,” Ho said.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
Market stalls in Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi have been shut, while police have stormed warehouses, clothing outlets and sneaker stores.
From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2026
In the real world, Ho Chi Minh and his followers were Communists.
From "Most Dangerous: Daniel Ellsberg and the Secret History of the Vietnam War" by Steve Sheinkin
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
This morning we were all startled by a cry of 'SAIL HO!'
From The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg and Other Stories by Twain, Mark
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
“Oh, ho. Another Podgórska. What do you want?”
From "The Light in Hidden Places" by Sharon Cameron
“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
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 Northcote, Rosalind
“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
“I strongly urge the global community to wait for the publication of the report from the W. H.O. mission,” he added.
From New York Times ● Mar. 4, 2021
I didn't want to yell it out because of Noël and H.O.
From New Treasure Seekers or, The Bastable Children in Search of a Fortune by Nesbit, E. (Edith)
"Weel, Jamie, man, and ho's the wife and the wean the day?" he asked.
From Between You and Me by Lauder, Harry, Sir
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 Mann, Thomas
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 Holley, Marietta
Mr. Potiphar exploded in great ha ha's and ho ho's, from the end of the table.
From The Potiphar Papers by Curtis, George William
It isn't only what Baumberger thinks—I don't know as ho's got anything to say about it—it's what I think.
From Good Indian by Bower, B. M.
It can turn a century-old maker of back hoes and mining trucks into a hot tech stock.
From Barron's ● Jan. 13, 2026
One account said the Russians paid the Kashia Pomo people already living there “three blankets, two axes, three hoes, and a miscellaneous assortment of beads” for the use of the land.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 1, 2025
In scorching heat, they attacked solid ground with pickaxes and hoes before carefully tucking the seedlings into the earth.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 13, 2024
The farmworkers wanted long-handled hoes, because it hurt their backs to kneel down all day.
From Salon ● Oct. 29, 2023
Millions of us had laid our hoes down on the dry ground and faced north.
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
In the hos pital he will start learning to use the appliance and begin studying a new vocation, civilian or Army.
From Time Magazine Archive
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
But what's the use," he added, "of me tellin' you the p'ints of a good hos?
From The Wit and Humor of America, Volume IV. (of X.) by Wilder, Marshall Pinckney
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.
