oi
/ɔɪ/interjection, noun, pronoun
oi is spelled O-I: 2 letters and one syllable. It appears 5.1 times per million words in written English, the 11,015th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “oi vs oy” about 480 times a month (Google, United States). As an interjection, oi means “Said to get someone's attention; hey” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in oi?
| Letters | 2: O-I |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 5.1 times per million words; the 11,015th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Sounds like | |
| Rhymes with |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is oi?
Oi appears 5.1 times per million words in written English, the 11,015th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce oi?
- UK /ɔɪ/
Oi has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-uk-oi.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with oi
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sounds like: oy (Wiktionary's homophone list; some hold only in some accents).
Also written: oy.
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with oi?
4 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as oi from its last stressed vowel (/ɔɪ/, British pronunciation):
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of oi
- ois plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does oi mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
interjection
- 1
CommonwealthIrelandUKSaid to get someone's attention; hey.
Oi, you with the red hat – what do you think you're doing?
- 2
CommonwealthIrelandUKAn expression of surprise.
Oi! This is new!
- 3
CommonwealthIrelandUKAn informal greeting, similar to hi.
Oi! How's it going?
- 4
CommonwealthIrelandUKAlternative spelling of oy.
- 5
CommonwealthIrelandUKAlternative spelling of oy.
noun
- 1
CommonwealthIrelandUKAn exclamation of 'oi'.
- 2
CommonwealthIrelandUKA working-class punk rock subgenre of the 1970s, sometimes associated with racism.
pronoun
- 1
CommonwealthIrelandUKEye dialect of I
pronoun
- 1
Pronunciation spelling of I.
noun
- 1
Initialism of opportunistic infection.
- 2
Initialism of osteogenesis imperfecta.
- 3
Initialism of orbital index
- 4
Abbreviation of object of interest.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Where does oi come from?
Variant of the interjection hoy with h-dropping in working class and Cockney speech; first recorded in the 1930s. Compare also unrelated Portuguese oi and Japanese おい (oi).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).