wog
/wɔɡ/noun, verb
wog is spelled W-O-G: 3 letters. It appears about once in every 8 million words in written English, the 86,301st most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, wog means “A non-white person, especially one of South Asian, Middle Eastern, or African descent” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of wog is wogs.
How many letters and syllables are in wog?
| Letters | 3: W-O-G |
|---|---|
| In writing | about once in every 8 million words; the 86,301st most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation; 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 wog?
Wog appears about once in every 8 million words in written English, the 86,301st 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 wog?
- UK /wɒɡ/
- US /wɔɡ/
- /wɑɡ/
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-au-wog.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
What rhymes with wog?
9 words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as wog from its last stressed vowel (/ɔɡ/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: gow.
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 wog
- wogs plural, present, singular, he/she/it
- wogging participle, present
- wogged participle, past
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does wog mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
noun
- 1
UKdatedA non-white person, especially one of South Asian, Middle Eastern, or African descent.
- 2
AustraliaSomeone of Mediterranean descent, such as an Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Lebanese, Greek, or Maltese person.
- 3
A person who is not a Scientologist.
- 4
Clipping of polliwog.
- 5
slangA pollywog, or sailor who has never crossed the Equator.
- 6
AustraliaslangA bug, an insect.
- 7
AustraliaslangA minor illness caused by bacteria, virus, intestinal parasite, etc.
- 8
AustraliaobsoleteslangA toy insect in parts that can be assembled, used in fund-raising games.
noun
- 1
Initialism of water-oil-gas, typically marked on valves that are acceptable for use with these fluids.
adjective
- 1
Abbreviation of whole-of-government.
verb
- 1
Australiaobsolete(Of soldiers stationed abroad) to sell something, especially illicit or stolen goods, to the local inhabitants.
- 2
AustraliaUKdatedTo steal.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Wog in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
In the sense an offensive term for a dark-skinned person:
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 wog come from?
The origins are not entirely clear. The term was first noted by the lexicographer F.C. Bowen in 1929, in his Sea Slang: a dictionary of the old-timers’ expressions and epithets, where he defines wogs as "lower class Babu shipping clerks on the Indian coast." The most common theory is that it is a clipping of golliwog, which was first used as the name of a black-faced doll in Florence Upton’s 1895 book The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwogg.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).