oomph
Americannoun
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energy; vitality; enthusiasm.
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sex appeal.
noun
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enthusiasm, vigour, or energy
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sex appeal
Etymology
Origin of oomph
An Americanism dating back to 1935–40; imitative of the sound made during exertion, as in lifting a heavy object
Explanation
Oomph is an exciting, energetic quality in a person. If you don't have enough oomph, it will be hard to talk your classmates into voting for you for student council president. The informal noun oomph is a good way to describe a certain aspect of someone's personality that resists being named. If you've got oomph, you're spirited and lively — you could say you've got moxie or pizzazz. Sometimes the word describes a specific kind of attractiveness or desirability: "My brother says he likes that actress because of her oomph." This word dates from the 1930s.
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.
Other versions introduce Odysseus with more masculine oomph.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 10, 2026
Baker's fire would add some much-needed oomph to an England team that had too many introverts for the heat of an Ashes battle in Australia.
From BBC ● Apr. 30, 2026
Combine their buy the dip, chase the rip behavior with professional investors like commodity trading advisers who already followed momentum strategies, and bounces have a lot more oomph these days.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 20, 2026
As she tells it, the special oomph that soy sauce adds to a bake is, in a word, umami.
From Salon ● Dec. 13, 2025
I’d dug down deep, and that extra oomph had found me.
From "Sir Fig Newton and the Science of Persistence" by Sonja Thomas
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
