ahoy.
Used to hail a ship, a boat or a person, or to attract attention.
Meaning & usage
Used to hail a ship, a boat or a person, or to attract attention.
Warning of something approaching or impending.
Where this word comes from
From a- + hoy (a nautical call used in hauling), from Middle English hoy (interjection), a greeting dating back to the fourteenth century. Compare Dutch hoi (“hi!, hello!”).
To hail with a cry of "ahoy".
Where this word comes from
From a- + hoy (a nautical call used in hauling), from Middle English hoy (interjection), a greeting dating back to the fourteenth century. Compare Dutch hoi (“hi!, hello!”).
An utterance of this interjection.
There were many ahoys heard from the approaching ship.
Where this word comes from
From a- + hoy (a nautical call used in hauling), from Middle English hoy (interjection), a greeting dating back to the fourteenth century. Compare Dutch hoi (“hi!, hello!”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.