great Scott

/ɡɹeɪt skɒt/

great Scott interjection: an exclamation of surprise or amazement.

Interjection

(dated) An exclamation of surprise or amazement
- Don’t understand? Land of—why, you see—you see—why, great Scott, can’t you understand a little thing like that? Can’t you understand the difference between your—why do you look so innocent and idiotic!1889, Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, New York, N.Y.: Charles L. Webster & Company, →OCLC, page 130
- “It's all clear,” he whispered. “Have you the chisel and the bags. Great Scott! Jump, Archie, jump, and I’ll swing for it!”
  Sherlock Holmes had sprung out and seized the intruder by the collar. The other dived down the hole, and I heard the sound of rending cloth as Jones clutched at his skirts.1891 [August], A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Adventures of Sherlock Holmes. Adventure II.—The Red-Headed League.”, in Geo[rge] Newnes, editor, The Strand Magazine: An Illustrated Monthly, volume II (July to...
Synonyms:

wow

great Scott meaning in Thai

great Scott in Thai

exclamation of surprise or amazement: แม่เจ้าโว้ย

Examples of great Scott in a sentence

‘You’re late.’ ‘Great Scott!’ exclaimed Bob amazedly. ‘I had no idea it was as late as this.’1937, Ion L. Idriess, Over the Range, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, published 1947, page 249:
The paddle-plug attached to the lightning rod on the clock tower is yanked out, and the cable drops down from the clock tower! / [EMMETT] BROWN / Great Scott!1984 October 12, Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale, Back to the Future, 4th draft, →OCLC, archived from the original on 11 Aug 2021, section 145...

Synonyms of great Scott

Forms of great Scott

alternative form	great Scot

Origin of great Scott

Uncertain or disputed. May come from either the Scottish novelist Walter Scott, so called in some poems, or Gen. Winfield Scott of the American Civil War, who weighed about 300 pounds and was referred to by his troops as "Great Scott". Alternately, perhaps a corruption of German grüß Gott! (“Good day!, Hello!”, literally “May God greet (thee)!”), or a euphemism for great Satan or good God.

Questions about great Scott

What does great Scott mean?: Great Scott means an exclamation of surprise or amazement.
What is great Scott in Thai?: Great Scott in Thai is แม่เจ้าโว้ย. See Great Scott meaning in Thai.
How do you use great Scott in a sentence?: ‘You’re late.’ ‘Great Scott!’ exclaimed Bob amazedly. ‘I had no idea it was as late as this.’
What part of speech is great Scott?: Great Scott is an interjection.
How do you pronounce great Scott?: Great Scott is pronounced /ɡɹeɪt skɒt/.

Words near great Scott in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: great Scott (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.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “great Scott.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/great_scott. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.