whoa

Sometimes woah

[hwoh, woh]

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!

whoa

/ wəʊ /

interjection

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of whoa¹

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of whoa¹

C19: variant of _ho ¹

Example Sentences

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.

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Johnny didn’t talk to many people, he was a man of few words, and the fact I got an interview, I was just like, “Whoa.”

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“That’s when we first saw P.T.A. with his Adidas shoes and we were like, ‘Whoa.’”

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Nick Fuentes—an openly antisemitic, openly racist, openly sexist type who once was persona non grata in all but the unseemliest of online spaces—sat down with former Fox News star Tucker Carlson this week, setting off a debate between the “whoa whoa whoa, we’re not Nazis over here” branch of conservatives and the “well now, hold on a minute” wing.

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“I’m interested in telling a story. And I wasn’t in that theater for 20 minutes before I thought, Whoa! I need to check this out!”

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When To Use

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.”