ah

See also: Appendix:Variations of "ah"

Languages (33)

Afar • Albanian • Aragonese • Catalan • Chickasaw • Danish • Esperanto • Finnish • French • Galician • German • Hokkien • Hungarian • Indonesian • Ingrian • Italian • Juǀ'hoan • Latin • Mokilese • Old English • Palikur • Pohnpeian • Portuguese • Romanian • Scots • Somali • Spanish • Sumerian • Swedish • Tulu-Bohuai • Vilamovian • Zou

Page categories

English

English Wikipedia has an article on:

ah

Wikipedia

Etymology 1

From Middle English ah, aa, a (“ah”), of imitative origin, or from Old English ēa, *eah (“oh, alas”), from Proto-West Germanic *a, *ah (“ah”). Earliest recorded use is circa 1175 in the Ormulum: A, Maȝȝstre! icc wat tatt tu full wiss Arrt Godess Sune ("Ah, Master! I know for sure that thou art God's Son"). Some propose that the Middle English is borrowed from Old French a (“ah!, oh!, hey!”) (represented by modern French ah).^[1]^[2]

Compare also West Frisian a, ah (“ah”), Dutch a, ah (“ah”), Middle Low German a (“ah”), Old High German a, aa, ah (“ah, oh”) (whence modern German ah), Faroese áh (“oh, ah, alas”), Icelandic æ, ai (“ah, oh”), Latin ah (“ah”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ɑː/
Audio (General American): (file)
Rhymes: -ɑː

Interjection

ah

An expression of relief, relaxation, comfort, confusion, understanding, wonder, awe, etc. according to uttered inflection.
Ah, I understand now.

Ah! It's good to be back home!

Ah, the flowers of spring.
A syllable used to fill space, particularly in music.
- 2008, Britney Spears (lyrics and music), “Womanizer”:
  Boy don't try to front, uh, I
  Know just, just, what you are, ah, ah.

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

an expression

Arabic: آه (ar) (ʔāh)
Egyptian Arabic: آه (āh), أها (ʔahā)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 哦 (zh) (ò)
Danish: ah
Dutch: ah (nl)
Esperanto: ha (eo), ah (eo)
Estonian: aa (et), ah (et), ee (et), oi (et), oo
Finnish: aa (fi)
French: ah (fr)
Greek: α (el) (a)
Hungarian: ah (hu)
Ido: ah (io)
Irish: á
Japanese: ああ (ja) (ā), あ (ja) (a), 嗚呼 (ja) (ああ, ā)
Korean: 아 (ko) (a)
Malay: ah (ms)
Norwegian:
Bokmål: ah (no)
Persian: آها (fa) (âhâ)
Polish: ach (pl), a (pl)
Portuguese: ah (pt)
Russian: а (ru) (a), ага́ (ru) (agá), о (ru) (o)
Slovak: ach
Swedish: ah (sv)
Thai: อ้อ (th) (ɔ̂ɔ)
Vietnamese: à (vi)
Welsh: a (cy)

word to fill space

Estonian: ee (et)
Greek: α (el) (a), ω (el) (o)

word used for drama

Estonian: ah (et)
Greek: α (el) (a)
Hebrew: אבוי (he) (avoy)
Swedish: ack (sv)

Noun

ah (plural ahs)

An instance of the interjection ah.
the crowd's oohs and ahs at the fireworks

Verb

ah (third-person singular simple present ahs, present participle ahing, simple past and past participle ahed)

To give a cry of "ah".
- 2005, T. R. Rhoads, Sinner, Sailor: A Memoir, page 221:
  Mother and dad oohed and ahed over Cindy. She was only two months old but already was developing her personality.

Pronoun

ah (personal pronoun, plural we, possessive adjective mah)

Pronunciation spelling of I, most often indicating that the speaker is using a Scottish or American (particularly Southern) accent.

Etymology 2

From Hokkien 啊 (--a), Teochew 啊 (a⁷), Mandarin 啊 (a).

Alternative forms

ar, har

Pronunciation

(Singapore, Malaysia)
- IPA^(key): (Senses 2‒5) /ɑː˨˦/, [äː˨˦ ~ ʌ̈ː˨˦], (Sense 2, non-interrogative) /ɑː/
- IPA^(key): (Sense 1) [ä˨]

Particle

ah (Manglish, Singlish)

Marks a tag question prompting the listener to clarify something.
Synonyms: (Singapore) is it, izzit

You’re dyslexic ah? ― So you’re dyslexic?
- 2020 April 12, Notdumb, “Liddat is safe distance ah?”, in SG Talk‎^[1], archived from the original on 18 April 2020:
  Only 2 ft apart considered safe ah?
Used for emphasis; reinforces a short wh-question.
- 2011 October 23, Rachel Chang, “LifeStyle”, in The Sunday Times, page 15:
  See how lor. Who’s going ar?
Emphasizes the need for absolute confirmation or acknowledgment.
Don't drink and drive ah...
- 2010 April 18, Colin Goh, “LifeStyle”, in The Sunday Times, page 24:
  Sure, ah? Thanks, man, pai seh.
A filler word separating the topic of a sentence and its comment.
The drilling upstairs ah, non-stop leh.
A filler word used to ascertain the continued attention of the listener.

Etymology 3

Imitative of a person gagging.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /æ/
Audio (US): (file)

Interjection

ah

Yuck.

References

“ah”, in The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 4th edition, Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin, 2000, →ISBN.
“ah”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
Lim, L. (2004) Singapore English: A grammatical description‎^[2], John Benjamins Publishing, →ISBN, page 121

^ “ah”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
^ Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “ah”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Anagrams

HA, Ha, ha, ha'

Afar

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈah/ [ˈʔʌh]

Pronoun

áh

this, these (masculine)

Declension

Declension of áh

absolutive

áh

predicative

áha

subjective

áh

genitive

ahtí

Postpositioned forms
l-case	áhal
k-case	áhak
t-case	áhat
h-case	áhah

References

E. M. Parker, R. J. Hayward (1985) “ah”, in An Afar-English-French dictionary (with Grammatical Notes in English), University of London, →ISBN
Mohamed Hassan Kamil (2015) L’afar: description grammaticale d’une langue couchitique (Djibouti, Erythrée et Ethiopie)‎^[3], Paris: Université Sorbonne Paris Cité (doctoral thesis)

Albanian

Etymology

From Proto-Albanian *aksa, from Proto-Indo-European *Heh₃s- (“ash”) (compare Greek οξιά (oxiá, “beech”), Armenian հածի (haci), English ash).

Noun

ah m (plural ahe, definite ahu, definite plural ahet)

beech (Fagus sylvatica)

Hyponyms

ah i bardhë (“white hornbeam”) (Carpinus betulus)

Aragonese

Etymology

Imitative, similar to French ah.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈa/
Rhymes: -a
Syllabification: ah

Interjection

ah

ah (expression of relief, realization, awe)
ah (expression of woe, grief)

Catalan

Etymology

Imitative, similar to French ah.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic, Valencia) [ˈa]

Interjection

ah

ah (expression of relief, realization, awe)
ah (expression of woe, grief)

Chickasaw

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Adverb

ah

yes
Synonym: hohmi

Danish

Etymology

Partly borrowed from German, English, French, from Latin ah (“ah”), from Proto-Indo-European *ā. Partly also onomatopoeic.

Cognate with Norwegian Bokmål ah, English ah, German ah, French ah and Latin ah.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ɛː/, /ˈɛːɛ/, /ɑ̈ː/
Audio: (file)
Rhymes: -ɛː, -ɑ̈ː
Hyphenation: ah

Interjection

ah

used to express pleasure, e.g. because something tastes good or feels nice
Coordinate terms: mm, mums, namnam

ah, sikken en dejlig pandekage
ah what a delicious pancake

Synonym: uhm
1. used to express pleasant surprise
  "ah, velkommen Albert," sagde Sickert til prinsen
  "ah, welcome Albert," said Sickert to the prince
  
  Synonym: minsandten
used to express reservations, slight disagreement, doubt etc.
bliver man også nervøs? Ah ikke så meget
do you get nervous too? Ah, not so much

Synonym: arh

References

“ah” in Den Danske Ordbog

Anagrams

Ah, ha, HA

Esperanto

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Interjection

ah

ah, oh

Finnish

Etymology

Found in a wide variety of languages, including but not limited to Estonian ah, Ingrian ah, Karelian ah, Ludian ah, Veps ah, Votic ah, Hungarian ah, Swedish ah, German ah, English ah, Latin ah. Tracing an exact origin is effectively impossible. Probably ultimately involuntary or natural.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈɑh/, [ˈɑ̝h]
Rhymes: -ɑh
Hyphenation^(key): ah

Interjection

ah

oh, ah

Anagrams

ha

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French a! (“oh! ah! woe!”), of expressive origin.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /a/
Audio: (file)

Interjection

ah

ah

Derived terms

ah bon

References

Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “ah”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

Galician

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [ˈaː]

Interjection

ah

ah (expression of understanding, etc.)

References

Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, editor (2006–2013), “ah”, in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega [Dictionary of Dictionaries of the Galician language] (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
Antón Luís Santamarina Fernández, Ernesto Xosé González Seoane, María Álvarez de la Granja, editors (2003–2018), “ah”, in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega
Rosario Álvarez Blanco, editor (2014–2024), “ah”, in Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués (in Galician), Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega, →ISSN

German

Etymology

From Middle High German ā, from Old High German a, ah, from Proto-West Germanic *a, *ah. Cognate with Middle Low German a, Middle English a, aa, ah (whence English ah).

Pronunciation

Rhymes: -aː

Interjection

ah

expressing understanding
expressing contentment

Hokkien

For pronunciation and definitions of ah – see 鴨 (“duck”). (This term is the pe̍h-ōe-jī form of 鴨).

For pronunciation and definitions of ah – see 矣 (“particle expressing completion”). (This term is the pe̍h-ōe-jī form of 矣).

Hungarian

Etymology

Involuntary expression of emotions: surprise, impatience, desire, sadness, refusal.^[1]

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [ˈɒx]
Rhymes: -ɒx

Interjection

ah

ah
- 1599-1601, William Shakespeare, Hamlet, Act IV, Scene 1 [6]
  Ah jó uram, mit láttam én az éjjel!
  Ah, my good lord, what have I seen to-night!

References

^ ah in Zaicz, Gábor (ed.). Etimológiai szótár: Magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete (‘Dictionary of Etymology: The origin of Hungarian words and affixes’). Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó, 2006, →ISBN. (See also its 2nd edition.)

Indonesian

Etymology

Unknown

from Arabic آهْ (ʔāh)
from Peranakan Indonesian ach (“oh”), from Dutch ach (“oh”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈah/
Rhymes: -ah

Interjection

ah

oh, expresses compassion, surprise and dismay

Ingrian

Alternative forms

ak

Etymology

Ultimately a natural sound. Compare Finnish ah and Estonian ah.

Pronunciation

(Ala-Laukaa) IPA^(key): /ˈɑh/, [ˈɑh]
(Soikkola) IPA^(key): /ˈɑh/, [ˈɑh]
Rhymes: -ɑh
Hyphenation: ah

Interjection

ah

Exclamation of wonder: oh!
Ah kui siä oot käppiä! ― Oh how beautiful you are!

References

Ruben E. Nirvi (1971) Inkeroismurteiden Sanakirja, Helsinki: Suomalais-Ugrilainen Seura, page 3

Italian

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈa/, which may be preceded and/or followed by [h] or [ʔ]. It also may trigger syntactic gemination.^[1]
Rhymes: -a
Hyphenation: ah

Interjection

ah

(sarcastic) ah! (usually ironic or sarcastic)
Synonym: ha

References

^ ah in Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)

Anagrams

ha

Juǀ'hoan

Pronunciation

The murmured vowel IPA^(key): /a̤/

Letter

ah (upper case Ah)

A letter of the Juǀ'hoan alphabet, written in the Latin script.

Latin

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Indo-European *ā or perhaps *h₂eh₂.^[1]

Pronunciation

(Classical Latin) IPA^(key): /aːh/, [äː(ɦ)]
(modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /a/, [ä]

Interjection

āh

ah

References

^ Beekes, Robert S. P. (2011) Comparative Indo-European Linguistics: An Introduction, 2nd edition, revised and corrected by Michiel de Vaan, Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, page 250

Mokilese

Noun

ah

(one's) thing

Usage notes

Like many terms in Mokilese, ah has no non-possessive form; the third person singular possessive form (one's/his/her/its thing) is therefore treated as the lemma.

Declension

Possessive forms of ah (loose inalienable possession, -ah stem)

singular possessor	first person	oai
	second person	oamw
	third person	ah
dual possessors	first person inclusive	asa
	first person exclusive	ama
	second person	amwa
	third person	ara
plural possessors	first person inclusive	asai
	first person exclusive	amai
	second person	amwai
	third person	arai
remote plural possessors	first person inclusive	ahs
	first person exclusive	imi
	second person	imwi
	third person	ahr
construct form		in

Old English

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ɑx/

Etymology 1

Conjunction

ah

(Anglian) Alternative form of ac (“but”)

Etymology 2

Verb

āh

first/third-person singular present indicative of āgan

Palikur

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

ah n or f

(neuter) wood
(feminine) tree

References

Languages of the Amazon (2012, →ISBN

Pohnpeian

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ɐː/
Rhymes: -ɐː

Etymology 1

Noun

ah

The name of the Latin-script letter A/a.

Etymology 2

Noun

ah

shark mullet (Rhinomugil nasutus), at a growth stage of approximately twelve inches

Etymology 3

Conjunction

ah

however, and, then
I sukuhl, ah e doadoahk.
I went to school, and he worked.

Ma Soulik pahn iang, ah I sohte pahn iang.
If Soulik goes, then I won't.

Etymology 4

Alternative forms

e
eh

Determiner

ah

his, her, hers, its, third person singular possessive pronoun
Liho iang ah pwoud.
The woman joined her husband.

Etymology 5

Interjection

ah

Oh!; commonly used as an expression of approval.
Ah, ke inenen mai.
Oh, you are really good.

Portuguese

Interjection

ah!

ah! (expression of relief, realization, awe)
ah! (expression of woe, grief)

Quotations

For quotations using this term, see Citations:ah.

Romanian

Etymology

Onomatopoeic.

Interjection

ah

ah

Scots

Alternative forms

a

Pronoun

ah

(Cromarty) who

References

Am Baile (2009) The Cromarty Fisherfolk Dialect‎^[7], Highland Council, page 8

Somali

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Verb

ah

(intransitive) To be
Bariis oo macaan ah. ― Rice that is sweet.

Spanish

Etymology

Imitative, similar to French ah.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ˈa/ [ˈa]
Rhymes: -a
Homophones: a, ha

Interjection

ah

ah (expression of relief, realization, awe)
ah (expression of woe, grief)

Related terms

Anagrams

ha

Sumerian

Romanization

ah

Romanization of 𒄴 (aḫ)

Swedish

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Interjection

ah

ah (expression of understanding, relaxation, contentment, etc.)
Ah, jag förstår
Ah, I understand

Ah, det är skönt att få glida ner i jacuzzin och knäcka en kall öl efter ett hårt arbetspass i skogen
Ah, it's nice [feels good] to slip ["get to slip" – redundant, but sounds natural] into the jacuzzi and crack open a cold beer after a session of hard work in the forest

Greven såg ut över sina ägor och tänkte "Ah, underbart!"
The count looked out over his lands ["ownings"] and thought, "Ah, wonderful!"

References

Anagrams

ha

Tulu-Bohuai

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /ah/

Noun

ah

coral lime (for chewing/eating with betelnut)

Vilamovian

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Interjection

ah

oh: expressing of surprise
oh: expressing wonder, amazement, or awe
oh: expressing understanding, recognition, or realization
oh: preceding an offhand or annoyed remark
oh: an invocation or address

Zou

Etymology

From earlier *ak (whence the possessive forms), from Proto-Kuki-Chin *ʔaar (“chicken”). Cognates include Khumi Chin ae and Mizo ár.

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /àʔ/

Noun

ah

fowl
(specifically) chicken (Gallus gallus)

Derived terms

References

Lukram Himmat Singh (2013) A Descriptive Grammar of Zou, Canchipur: Manipur University, page 49

[1] “ah”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

[2] Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “ah”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

[3] Zaicz, Gábor (ed.). Etimológiai szótár: Magyar szavak és toldalékok eredete (‘Dictionary of Etymology: The origin of Hungarian words and affixes’). Budapest: Tinta Könyvkiadó, 2006, →ISBN. (See also its 2nd edition.)

[4] Luciano Canepari, Dizionario di Pronuncia Italiana (DiPI)

[5] Beekes, Robert S. P. (2011) Comparative Indo-European Linguistics: An Introduction, 2nd edition, revised and corrected by Michiel de Vaan, Amsterdam, Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company, page 250

[1]

[2]

[1]

[1]

[1]

	masculine	feminine
proximal to the speaker(s)	áh	táh
proximal to the spoken to	amáh	tamáh
distal	wóh	tóh
very distal	wóttih

English

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

Interjection

Derived terms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

Verb

Pronoun

Etymology 2

Alternative forms

Pronunciation

Particle

See also

Etymology 3

Pronunciation

Interjection

References

Anagrams

Afar

Etymology

Pronunciation

Pronoun

Declension

See also

References

Albanian

Etymology

Noun

Hyponyms

Further reading

Aragonese

Etymology

Pronunciation

Interjection

Catalan

Etymology

Pronunciation

Interjection

Chickasaw

Etymology

Adverb

Danish

Etymology

Pronunciation

Interjection

References

Anagrams

Esperanto

Etymology

Interjection

Finnish

Etymology

Pronunciation

Interjection

Further reading

Anagrams

French

Etymology

Pronunciation

Interjection

Derived terms

References

Further reading

Galician

Etymology

Pronunciation

Interjection

References

German

Etymology

Pronunciation

Interjection

Further reading

Hokkien

Hungarian

Etymology

Pronunciation

Interjection