hey

• enPR: hā, IPA^(key): /heɪ/

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• Homophone: hay
• Rhymes: -eɪ

From Middle English hey, hei, also without h- in ey, from Old English *hē, ēa (interjection), attested as first element in hēlā, ēalā (“O!, alas!, oh!, lo!”). Cognate with Dutch hé, hei (“hi, hey”), German hei (“hey, wow”), Danish and Swedish hej (“hello, hey”), Faroese hey (“hey, hello”), Old Norse, Icelandic and Norwegian hei (“hey”), Romanian hei, Russian эй (ej, “hey”); see heigh. Probably a natural expression, as may be inferred from its presence with similar meaning in many other unrelated languages: for example, Burmese ဟေး (he:), Finnish hei, Unami hè, and Mandarin 哎 (āi), and various sound-alikes as Ancient Greek εἶα (eîa) and Latin eia, eho, Sanskrit हे (he). See also hello.

• hay
• heigh

hey

1. An exclamation to get attention.

   Hey, look at this!

   Hey! Listen!

2. A protest or reprimand.

   Hey! Stop that!

3. An expression of surprise.

   Hey! This is new!

4. (US, Australia, Canada) An informal greeting, similar to hi.

   Hey! How's it going?

5. A request for repetition or explanation; an expression of confusion (see also eh, huh).

   Hey? How's that?

6. A meaningless beat marker or extra, filler syllable in song lyrics.

   The chorus is nana na na, nana na na hey hey hey, goodbye".

• (exclamation to get attention): oi, yo; see also Thesaurus:hey
• (expression of surprise): blimey, gee whiz, yowzah; see also Thesaurus:wow
• (informal greeting): hi, howdy, wotcher; see also Thesaurus:hello

• huh
• hay is for horses
• hey on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

From French haie (“hedge”), with reference to the weaving patterns used in hedgelaying.

hey (plural heys)

1. (country dancing) A choreographic figure in which three or more dancers weave between one another, passing by left and right shoulder alternately.

See he.

hey (plural heys)

1. Alternative spelling of he (Hebrew letter)

• Yeh, hye, yeh

hey

1. hi, hey, hello

   hey aftur! ― hello again!

   Synonyms: halló, góðan morgun, góðan dag, gott kvøld

   Antonyms: farvæl, vit síggjast

• IPA^(key): /heiː/
• Rhymes: -eiː

From Old Norse hey, from Proto-Germanic *hawją.

hey n (genitive singular heys, nominative plural hey)

1. (usually uncountable) hay

hey

1. hey

From Old English hē, from Proto-Germanic *hiz (“this, this one”).

hey

1. Alternative form of he

• “he, (pron.)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 6 May 2018.

From Old English hīe, hī.

hey

1. Alternative form of he

• “he, pron. (3)” in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007, retrieved 12 June 2018.

hey

1. Obsolete spelling of hei

hey

1. possess

• ey

Borrowed from English hey.

• IPA^(key): /ˈei/, [ˈei̯]

¡hey!

1. hey!

• eh
• oye

• ah
• oh
• hala