Whoa or woe?
whoa is an interjection meaning “Stop (especially when commanding a horse or imitative thereof); calm down; slow…”; woe is a noun meaning “Great sadness or distress; a misfortune causing such sadness”. Use whoa as an interjection and woe as a noun. They sound the same (/wəʊ/). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) whoa is about 3.2 times as common as woe.
What is the difference between whoa and woe?
| whoa | woe | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | interjection, verb | noun, adjective, interjection |
| Meaning | Stop (especially when commanding a horse or imitative thereof); calm down; slow down An expression of surprise To attempt to slow (an animal) by crying "whoa" | Great sadness or distress; a misfortune causing such sadness Calamity, trouble |
| Example | Whoa, Nelly! | Oh, woe is me! |
| Forms | whoah | woes |
| Pronunciation | /wəʊ/ /ʍəʊ/ /woʊ/ | /wəʊ/ /woʊ/ |
| In writing | 6.6 times per million words | 2.0 times per million words |
Sources: whoa and woe 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 whoa and woe
whoa
- 1
Stop (especially when commanding a horse or imitative thereof); calm down; slow down
Whoa, Nelly!
- 2
To attempt to slow (an animal) by crying "whoa"
- 3
An expression of surprise
Whoa, are you serious?
- 4
Used as a meaningless filler in song lyrics
I am the type who is liable to snipe you With two seconds left to go, whoa
woe
- 1
Great sadness or distress; a misfortune causing such sadness
Oh, woe is me!
- 2
slangA close friend; a nigga, homie or bro
- 3
Calamity, trouble
- 4
A curse; a malediction
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, whoa or woe?
whoa appears 6.6 times per million words; woe 2.0 times per million words.
whoa 6.6 times per million wordswoe 2.0 times per million words
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).