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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

whoop.

A loud, eager cry, usually of joy.

5 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/wuːp//ʍuːp//wʊp//huːp/
  1. A loud, eager cry, usually of joy.

  2. A gasp, characteristic of whooping cough.

  3. A bump on a racetrack.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English whopen, whowpen, howpen, houpen (“to whoop, cry out”), partially from Old French houper, hopper, houpper (“to shout”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwōpan, from Proto-Germanic *hwōpaną (“to boast, threaten”) (compare Gothic 𐍈𐍉𐍀𐌰𐌽 (ƕōpan, “to boast”), Old English hwōpan (“to threaten”)); and partially from Middle English wop (“weeping, lamentation”), from Old English wōp (“cry, outcry, shrieking, weeping, lamentation”), from Proto-West Germanic *wōp, from Proto-Germanic *wōpaz (“shout, cry, wail”) (compare Old Norse ópa (“to cry, scream, shout”), Gothic 𐍅𐍉𐍀𐌾𐌰𐌽 (wōpjan, “to cry out”)).

verb/wuːp//ʍuːp//wʊp//huːp/
  1. To make a whoop.

    intransitive
  2. To shout, to yell.

    transitive
  3. To cough or breathe with a sonorous inspiration, as in whooping cough.

  4. To insult with shouts; to chase with derision.

    obsolete · transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English whopen, whowpen, howpen, houpen (“to whoop, cry out”), partially from Old French houper, hopper, houpper (“to shout”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwōpan, from Proto-Germanic *hwōpaną (“to boast, threaten”) (compare Gothic 𐍈𐍉𐍀𐌰𐌽 (ƕōpan, “to boast”), Old English hwōpan (“to threaten”)); and partially from Middle English wop (“weeping, lamentation”), from Old English wōp (“cry, outcry, shrieking, weeping, lamentation”), from Proto-West Germanic *wōp, from Proto-Germanic *wōpaz (“shout, cry, wail”) (compare Old Norse ópa (“to cry, scream, shout”), Gothic 𐍅𐍉𐍀𐌾𐌰𐌽 (wōpjan, “to cry out”)).

verb/wʊp//ʍʊp/
  1. To beat, to strike.

    informal · transitive
  2. To defeat thoroughly.

    informal · transitive
Where this word comes from

From a traditional African American and Southern US pronunciation of whip.

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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.