Wo or woe?
wo is an interjection meaning “A falconer's call to a hawk”; woe is a noun meaning “Great sadness or distress; a misfortune causing such sadness”. Use wo as an interjection and woe as a noun (wo is also a noun: “A wall”). In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) wo is about 2.5 times as common as woe.
What is the difference between wo and woe?
| wo | woe | |
|---|---|---|
| Part of speech | interjection, noun, verb, prefix | noun, adjective, interjection |
| Meaning | A falconer's call to a hawk A call to cause a horse to slow down or stop; whoa A wall | Great sadness or distress; a misfortune causing such sadness Calamity, trouble |
| Example | Hoo's pluck of a lion an' faces her foe Wi' calm in her e'en an' her beck agen t' wo; Hoo's firm i' decision, stonds up for her reets | Oh, woe is me! |
| Forms | whoa | woes |
| Pronunciation | /wo/ /wɔː/ | /wəʊ/ /woʊ/ |
| In writing | 5.0 times per million words | 2.0 times per million words |
Sources: wo 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 wo and woe
wo
- 1
A falconer's call to a hawk
- 2
A wall
Hoo's pluck of a lion an' faces her foe Wi' calm in her e'en an' her beck agen t' wo; Hoo's firm i' decision, stonds up for her reets
- 3
the prefix of catalog entries in the Gliese star catalog, the Richard van der Riet Woolley expansion
- 4
Initialism of warrant officer
- 5
A call to cause a horse to slow down or stop; 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, wo or woe?
wo appears 5.0 times per million words; woe 2.0 times per million words.
wo 5.0 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).