oops
/uːps/interjection, noun, verb
oops is spelled O-O-P-S: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 5.4 times per million words in written English, the 10,680th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As an interjection, oops means “Used to acknowledge a small mistake or accident” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in oops?
| Letters | 4: O-O-P-S |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 5.4 times per million words; the 10,680th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Same letters |
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); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is oops?
Oops appears 5.4 times per million words in written English, the 10,680th 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 oops?
- UK /uːps/
- UK /ʊps/
- British /ʉwps/
Oops 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-Oops.ogg, En-us-oops.ogg, En-us-OOPS.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with oops?
No other word on PlainSpell ends in the same sounds as oops (/ups/).
Spelled with the same letters in another order: spoo.
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 oops
- oopses plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- oopsing participle, present
- oopsed participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does oops mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
interjection
- 1
informalUsed to acknowledge a small mistake or accident.
Oops! I left the lid off the ketchup.
- 2
informalUsed to indicate mild surprise or shock.
noun
- 1
A minor mistake or unforeseen difficulty.
verb
- 1
colloquialTo make a mistake; to blunder.
noun
- 1
Abbreviation of object-oriented programming system.
noun
- 1
plural of OOP
verb
- 1
third-person singular simple present indicative of OOP
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Oops in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense acknowledging a minor mistake:
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | oups, houp! |
| German | ups, huch, hoppla |
| Portuguese | opa, ops |
| Spanish | uy, vaya, ops, ups, huy, epa |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does oops come from?
A presumably 'natural' exclamation, attested in writing since 1921. Related to or a variation of whoops (itself attested since 1933). A shortening of whoops-a-daisy, whoopsie-daisy, or oops-a-daisy, which in turn is a mispronunciation of ups-a-daisy or upsy-daisy.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).