or what

Idioms  

1. A phrase following a statement that adds emphasis or suggests an option. For example, in Is this a good movie or what? the phrase asks for confirmation or agreement. However, it also may ask for an alternative, as in Is this book a biography or what? In the 1700s it generally asked for a choice among a series of options, and it still has this function, as in In what does John excel? in imagination? in reasoning powers? in mathematics? or what?

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

or what

Yet Wall Street is no closer to agreeing about whether it’s a bubble, how much longer it can keep going or what might ultimately end it.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 20, 2026

Base fees, or what BlackRock collects from clients for managing their money, rose 8% from a year earlier when stripping out the impact of market moves.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 15, 2026

"In my head, at one point, there was frustration that I was only playing this music because I can't play what I want to or what I used to play. That was hard," she explained.

From BBC ● Jul. 13, 2026

But what really made Platner appealing to Moraff and Fan didn’t have anything to do with the kind of person he was or what was, or wasn’t, on his résumé.

From Slate ● Jul. 8, 2026

I haven’t made any suggestions, since I’m not exactly sure what a one-act play is, or what I’m doing here.

From "Amina's Song" by Hena Khan