whoa

American  

[hwoh, woh] / ʰwoʊ, woʊ /

Sometimes woah

interjection

1. (used to command an animal, especially a horse, to stop.)

2. (used to tell a person to stop, wait, or slow down).

   Whoa, you need to sit over there and calm yourself.

3. (an exclamation of surprise, wonder, pleasure, etc.).

   Whoa, that's a great photo!

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whoa British  

/ wəʊ /

interjection

1. a command used esp to horses to stop or slow down

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Usage

What does whoa mean? Whoa is used to express that something is impressive, surprising, or astounding, as in Whoa! Look at that sunset! In this sense, it’s very similar to wow.Whoa is also used as a command to stop. This command is especially associated with its use to get a horse to stop or slow down.Whoa is an interjection, meaning it’s typically used by itself outside of a sentence.Some people spell it woah.Example: When I told Keanu that the horse was running right at him, he just stood there and said, “Whoa.”

Etymology

Origin of whoa

First recorded in 1460–80; dialectal variant of ho ²

Example Sentences

Villarreal: Whoa, that’s a throwback.

From Los Angeles Times

“Whoa. Who’s this fancy person, and what have you done with my friend Andrew?”

From Literature

“Anfrew! Whoa! Check that eye! You’re turning all the colors of the rainbow.”

From Literature

Come up with any “solution” to “fix” the daffy selection process for the 12-team college football playoff–adding more teams, eliminating conference championships, getting rid of automatic bids, flying the human committee to an abandoned island and leaving them there, handing the whole thing back to the computer, praying a series of “Whoa Nellies” to the spirit of Keith Jackson and letting Keith decide–and there’s always going to be a Ticked Off Team on the Outside, furious they’ve been snubbed.

From The Wall Street Journal

Then again, some of us already experienced another Will-related “whoa” moment at the top of the fourth season, supposedly set shortly after the third.

From Salon