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wehe

German, interjection

wehe is spelled W-E-H-E (4 letters) and appears 7.4 times per million words in written German, the 9,010th most frequent German word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Wehe is a German interjection meaning “woe; don't you dare (threatening exclamation)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a first-person singular present of wehen. With a capital, Wehe is a different word: “labour pain, contraction”. The German Wiktionary defines it as “als Ausruf der Bestürzung, Klage, des Kummers, Leids, (seelischen) Schmerzes oder dergleichen”.

What does wehe mean in English?

interjection

  1. 1

    woe; don't you dare (threatening exclamation)

    Wehe euch, ihr Schriftgelehrten und Pharisäer!

  2. 2

    archaicalternative form of weh (exclamation of pain)

verb

  1. 1

    first-person singular present

  2. 2

    singular imperative

  3. 3

    first/third-person singular subjunctive I

noun

as Wehe
  1. 1

    femininelabour pain, contraction

noun

as Wehe
  1. 1

    feminineraredrift (a mass of matter which has been driven together by wind)

noun

as Wehe
  1. 1

    neuternominative/accusative/genitive plural of Weh

Source: English Wiktionary, German section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How German dictionaries define it

noun: 1. seelischer Schmerz 2. körperlicher Schmerz

noun: 1. Kontraktion der Gebärmutter während der Geburt

noun: 1. durch den Wind aufgewehte, zusammengewehte Anhäufung, vor allem von Schnee oder Sand

interjection: 1. als Ausruf der Bestürzung, Klage, des Kummers, Leids, (seelischen) Schmerzes oder dergleichen 2. Ausruf als Ankündigung oder Androhung von etwas Schlimmen, Unheilvollen oder dergleichen

The definition in the German Wiktionary, in German.

Source: German Wiktionary, dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.

Forms of wehe

  • weh alternative colloquial poetic
  • weh' alternative colloquial poetic
  • Wehen plural
  • Weh variant
  • Wehes genitive singular

Source: English Wiktionary and German Wiktionary (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).

How common is wehe in German?

wehe appears 7.4 times per million words in written German.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

What to look up after wehe