Whoa

//woʊ// intj, verb

intj, verb ·Uncommon ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To attempt to slow (an animal) by crying "whoa". transitive

    "He was whoaing the horses loudly, and they did seem to be going faster than usual—in fact, they were galloping."

Intj
  1. 1
    Stop (especially when commanding a horse or imitative thereof); calm down; slow down.

    "Whoa, Nelly!"

  2. 2
    An expression of surprise.

    "Whoa, are you serious?"

  3. 3
    Used as a meaningless filler in song lyrics.

    "I am the type who is liable to snipe you With two seconds left to go, whoa."

Synonyms

All synonyms
blimeybloody hellbloody norablow me tightblow me upbutter my butt and call me a biscuit

Example

More examples

""Mmmmn ... maybe I'll have a hair of the dog." "Whoa, hold up a mo! Here, I cooked roast fish for this morning. You ought to be able to eat this OK.""

Etymology

Whoa (c. 1843) is a variant of woa (c. 1840), itself a variant of wo (c. 1787), from who (c. 1450), ultimately from Middle English ho, hoo (interjection), probably from Old Norse hó! (interjection, also, a shepherd's call). Compare German ho, Old French ho ! (“hold!, halt!”).

Related phrases

whoa backwhoa, Nellycalm downslow down

More for "whoa"

SynonymsSentencesPronunciationTranslate

Next best steps

Find stronger synonymsSee usage examplesCheck pronunciationBrowse writing guides

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.