# whoa

Pronunciation: say "WOH" US /woʊ/, UK /wəʊ/

## Interjection

1. An exclamation used to express surprise or amazement.
   - Simple: A word you say when something surprises you.
   - _Whoa, I had no idea the project was already finished._
   - _Whoa, the view from up here is absolutely incredible._
2. An exclamation used to command a horse to stop, or to tell a person to slow down or calm down.
   - Simple: A word used to tell a horse or a person to stop, slow down, or calm down.
   - _Whoa, slow down before you crash that bike!_
   - _"Whoa there," the rider called, pulling back on the reins._
4. A vocable carrying no lexical meaning, sung to fill out a line or hook in a song.
   - Simple: A sound with no real meaning, sung to fill out a line in a song.
   - _The hook is built around a catchy "whoa-oh" that the crowd chants back._
   - _He padded the bridge with a few sustained "whoas" instead of new words._

## Verb

3. To attempt to slow or stop an animal by calling out "whoa."
   - Simple: To try to make an animal stop or slow down by shouting "whoa."
   - _The driver struggled to whoa the spooked horses as the cart picked up speed._
   - _He whoaed the mule team to a halt at the edge of the field._

## Origin

"Whoa" (c. 1843) is a variant of "woa" (c. 1840), itself from "wo" (c. 1787) and earlier "who" (c. 1450), from Middle English "ho, hoo," probably from Old Norse "hó!" (an interjection and a shepherd's call). It is comparable to German "ho" and Old French "ho!" ("hold!, halt!").

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/whoa (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).