Word.ws English Dictionary

ah so

ah so interjection: stereotypical utterance of wise understanding by a Japanese or Chinese person.

Interjection

  1. (offensive) Stereotypical utterance of wise understanding by a Japanese or Chinese person.
    • 'Ah so,' said a Japanese passenger.
      'Ah so to you,' said a rough sailor.
      'Ach, a wee Japannee,' said McGonagall, and went into a series of Buckingham Palace photographic poses.1988, Spike Milligan, Jack Hobbs, William McGonagall Meets George Gershwin: A Scottish Fantasy
    • “One other thing,” Jack said, “let's not play here, at the Tropicana.”
      “Ah, so,” Harry said with a Chinese accent. “The wise fox doth not despoil its own nest.”1998, Robert W. Bliss, A. N. G. E. L. S., Inc., page 91

Origin of ah so

From Japanese ああ、そう (ā, sō, “I see”).

Questions about ah so

What does ah so mean?
Ah so means stereotypical utterance of wise understanding by a Japanese or Chinese person.
What part of speech is ah so?
Ah so is an interjection.

Words near ah so in the dictionary

  1. ah pui
  2. ah qua
  3. ah quas
  4. Ah Seng
  5. ah shucks
  6. ah so
  7. Ah Soh
  8. Ah Sohs
  9. Ah Tiong
  10. ah well
  11. ah-bup-bup

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ah so (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “ah so.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ah_so. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.