wows

1. 1
   verbcolloquial

   Third-person singular present of wow.

   Her voice wows every audience she sings for.

   The chef's dessert wows critics night after night.

   Note

   Because the verb is transitive, this form needs an object: the show wows audiences, never simply the show wows. The passive follows naturally, as in critics were wowed. The word is informal; in formal writing, amazes or awes does the same work. A preceding determiner, as in loud wows, signals the plural of the exclamation instead.

2. 2
   noun

   Plural of wow.

   The fireworks drew loud wows from the gathered crowd.

   Her surprise gift earned wows all around the room.

   Note

   A plural that mostly belongs to the informal nouns: a crowd lets out wows, and a show can be full of them. The audio engineer's wow, a slow wobble in pitch on gramophone records and tape, is often treated as uncountable, so its plural is rarer. Wow as short for weight on wheels takes none at all. The same spelling also serves the verb meaning "amazes", and a following object marks the verb.

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