overwordExplorer
ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

oops.

Used to acknowledge a small mistake or accident.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

intj/uːps/Received-Pronunciation/ʊps/Received-Pronunciation/ʉwps/British, Southern, Standard/ɵps/British, Southern, Standard
  1. Used to acknowledge a small mistake or accident.

    informal
    Oops! I left the lid off the ketchup.
  2. Used to indicate mild surprise or shock.

    informal
Where this word comes from

A presumably 'natural' exclamation, attested in writing since 1921. Related to or a variation of whoops (itself attested since 1933). A shortening of whoops-a-daisy, whoopsie-daisy, or oops-a-daisy, which in turn is a mispronunciation of ups-a-daisy or upsy-daisy.

noun/uːps/Received-Pronunciation/ʊps/Received-Pronunciation/ʉwps/British, Southern, Standard/ɵps/British, Southern, Standard
  1. A minor mistake or unforeseen difficulty.

Where this word comes from

A presumably 'natural' exclamation, attested in writing since 1921. Related to or a variation of whoops (itself attested since 1933). A shortening of whoops-a-daisy, whoopsie-daisy, or oops-a-daisy, which in turn is a mispronunciation of ups-a-daisy or upsy-daisy.

verb/uːps/Received-Pronunciation/ʊps/Received-Pronunciation/ʉwps/British, Southern, Standard/ɵps/British, Southern, Standard
  1. To make a mistake; to blunder.

    colloquial · intransitive
Where this word comes from

A presumably 'natural' exclamation, attested in writing since 1921. Related to or a variation of whoops (itself attested since 1933). A shortening of whoops-a-daisy, whoopsie-daisy, or oops-a-daisy, which in turn is a mispronunciation of ups-a-daisy or upsy-daisy.

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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.