Oi or oy?
oi is an interjection meaning “Said to get someone's attention; hey”; oy is an interjection meaning “An exclamation typically expressing mild frustration or expressing feelings of…”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) oi is about 4.0 times as common as oy.
What is the difference between oi and oy?
| oi | oy | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | interjection, noun, pronoun, suffix | interjection |
| Meaning | CommonwealthIrelandUKSaid to get someone's attention; hey CommonwealthIrelandUKAn expression of surprise CommonwealthIrelandUKAn exclamation of 'oi' | An exclamation typically expressing mild frustration or expressing feelings of uncertainty or concern |
| Example | Oi, you with the red hat – what do you think you're doing? | none recorded |
| Forms | ois, OIs | oi |
| Pronunciation | /ɔɪ/ /-ɔɪ/ | /ɔɪ/ |
| In writing | 5.1 times per million words | 1.3 times per million words |
Sources: oi and oy in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
Every current meaning of oi and oy
oi
- 1
CommonwealthIrelandUKSaid to get someone's attention; hey
Oi, you with the red hat – what do you think you're doing?
- 2
CommonwealthIrelandUKAn exclamation of 'oi'
- 3
CommonwealthIrelandUKAlternative spelling of oy
- 4
CommonwealthIrelandUKEye dialect of I
- 5
CommonwealthIrelandUKAlternative spelling of oy
- 6
Pronunciation spelling of I
- 7
Synonym of oi (a genre of British punk rock)
- 8
Initialism of opportunistic infection
oy
- 1
An exclamation typically expressing mild frustration or expressing feelings of uncertainty or concern
- 2
Alternative spelling of oi (“hey, hi, yo”)
Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.
Which is more common, oi or oy?
oi appears 5.1 times per million words; oy 1.3 times per million words.
oi 5.1 times per million wordsoy 1.3 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How many people search oi vs oy?
“oi vs oy” is searched about 480 times a month on Google and 20 on Bing in the United States. Google counts close variants of a query together (“oy vs oi”, “oi or oy”).
Sources: Google Ads keyword data through DataForSEO and Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, the average month from September 2025 to August 2026.