# woe

> English word · Noun · IPA /wəʊ/ · frequency rank #19,509

## Definitions
1. Great sadness or distress; a misfortune causing such sadness.
2. Calamity, trouble.
3. A curse; a malediction.

## Etymology
From Middle English wo, wei, wa, from Old English wā, wǣ, from Proto-West Germanic *wai (interjection), from Proto-Germanic *wai (interjection), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wáy (interjection).
Cognate with Dutch wee, German Weh, weh, Yiddish וויי (vey), Danish, Norn, Norwegian, Swedish ve, Faroese and Icelandic vei, Gothic 𐍅𐌰𐌹 (wai), Catalan, Italian, and Portuguese guai, Romanian vai, Spanish guay, Latin vae, Ancient Greek οὐαί (ouaí), Albanian vaj, Latvian vai, Lithuanian vai̇̃, Bulgarian уви́ (uví), Russian увы́ (uvý), Serbo-Croatian avaj, Persian وای (vây), Armenian վայ (vay).

## Easily confused with
- **Wu** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/woe-vs-wu)
- **wt** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/woe-vs-wt)
- **WS** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/woe-vs-ws)
- **WV** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/woe-vs-wv)
- **wy** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/woe-vs-wy)
- **won** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/woe-vs-won)
- **wow** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/woe-vs-wow)
- **WTF** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/woe-vs-wtf)
- **WWE** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/woe-vs-wwe)
- **woo** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/woe-vs-woo)
- **WWW** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/woe-vs-www)
- **WTO** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/woe-vs-wto)
- **WWF** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/woe-vs-wwf)
- **wot** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/woe-vs-wot)
- **wut** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/woe-vs-wut)
- **WSJ** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/woe-vs-wsj)
- **WTH** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/woe-vs-wth)
- **wop** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/woe-vs-wop)
- **wry** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/woe-vs-wry)
- **wor** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/woe-vs-wor)

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/woe