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wow

noun · verb

Simple meaning

Anything exceptionally surprising, unbelievable.

Pronunciation

Say it like this:

wow
US device voice
IPA pronunciation (US)

ˈwaʊ

This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.

IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.

Word Review

Definition

Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.

noun

  1. informal

    An utterance of "wow".

  2. informal

    Anything exceptionally surprising, unbelievable, outstanding, etc.

  3. Alternative letter-case form of WoW ("World of Warcraft").

verb

  1. transitiveinformal

    To amaze or awe.

Word at a Glance

Difficulty
A2 · Elementary (estimated)
Frequency
Common
Typical Use
Varies by meaning

Word Aura™

How this word commonly comes across.

Word Aura is being prepared for this meaning.

More ways to use wow

  • “Wow, that was an amazing magic trick we just saw!”noun

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Common Patterns and Combinations

How this word naturally appears with others.

Alternative / initialism

wow theory

Anything

wow factor

Other combinations

pow wowbow wowlike wowstation wowsay wowwow cafe

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Word Family

Related forms, grouped by how they connect.

Compound terms

Established multiword terms.

  • bow-wownounCompound term

    The bark of a dog.

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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.