oxalá
Portuguese, noun/o.ʃaˈla/
oxalá is spelled O-X-A-L-Á (5 letters) and appears 1.5 times per million words in written Portuguese, the 25,925th most frequent Portuguese word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Oxalá is a Portuguese masculine noun meaning “alternative letter-case form of Oxalá” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) defines it as “o maior dos orixás”.
What does oxalá mean in English?
adverb
- 1
hopefully (I hope that)
interjection
- 1
I hope so; let’s hope so
noun
- 1
masculinealternative letter-case form of Oxalá
Source: English Wiktionary, Portuguese section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How Portuguese dictionaries define it
interjection: 1. exprime desejo de realização de um fato; tomara; queira Deus
noun: 1. o maior dos orixás 2. No candomblé, orixá a quem estão atribuidas as funções de criação e reprodução
The definition in the Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), in Portuguese.
Source: Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of oxalá
- oxalá! canonical
Source: English Wiktionary and Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
How do you pronounce oxalá?
- Brazil /o.ʃaˈla/
- Portugal /ɔ.ʃɐˈla/
- Portugal /o.ʃɐ.ˈla/
Sources: English Wiktionary, Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026); recordings from Wikimedia Commons.
English words that translate to oxalá
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is oxalá in Portuguese?
oxalá appears 1.5 times per million words in written Portuguese.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).