whoa

• woah
• whoah

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!”).

• (UK) IPA^(key): /wəʊ/, /ʍəʊ/
• (US) enPR: wō, hwō, IPA^(key): /woʊ/, /ʍoʊ/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -əʊ
• Homophone: woe (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

whoa

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

   Whoa, Nelly!

   • 2007, Ron Liebman, Death by Rodrigo, New York: Simon & Schuster, →ISBN, page 134:

     I can see Mickie getting hot, I'm about to grab his arm, hold him back, say, Whoa, whoa, Mick, not here, it ain't worth it what happened inside just now.

2. An expression of surprise.

   Whoa, are you serious?

3. Used as a meaningless filler in song lyrics.
   • 2003, "Weird Al" Yankovic, eBay (song)

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

   • 2010, Bruce Springsteen, It's a Shame

     And oh whoa girl, it's a shame.
     Oh whoa girl, it's a doggone shame.

An alternative spelling, woah (c. 1856), is common but may be considered an error.

• (stop, said to a horse): giddyup, giddy-up, giddap

whoa (third-person singular simple present whoas, present participle whoaing, simple past and past participle whoaed)

1. (transitive) To attempt to slow (an animal) by crying "whoa".
   • 1926, Josephine Demott Robinson, The Circus Lady (page 38)

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

• Whoa! Woah?! Whoah. How an old exclamation became the Internet’s most variously spelled word., Matthew J.X. Malady, Slate