whoa
interj.interj. a word you say when you are surprised, impressed, or want someone to slow down. It is a common way to react to something amazing or unexpected.
interj. an exclamation used to express surprise, alarm, or amazement, or to command a horse to stop. Informal in register; primarily used in spoken English to signal a sudden reaction to new information.
Whoa, that car is incredibly fast.
Whoa, slow down a second and tell me exactly what happened at the meeting.
The crowd let out a collective whoa as the acrobat performed a triple flip without the safety net, momentarily silencing the entire arena.
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!”).
Often stands alone as a complete utterance or precedes a sentence; it is frequently used to interrupt a speaker who is moving too quickly through a topic.
woahwhoaWhile 'woah' is a very common variant in digital slang, 'whoa' remains the standard spelling in dictionaries and formal editing.