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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

phew.

Used to express relief of tension, fatigue, or surprise.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

intj/fjuː/[ɸj̊u̥˥˩]/fɪu̯/
  1. Used to express relief of tension, fatigue, or surprise.

    Phew, that took a long time to cook!
  2. Used to show disgust.

    Phew, it stinks in here!
Where this word comes from

Attested since the early 17th century. An onomatopoeia for rapid exhalation, as one may make when a trying situation is over, or in order to get rid of an unpleasant odour. Compare Scots feuch, Spanish fu, Czech fuj, and many more such forms.

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phew studiophew workshello, phew

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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.