hey
/heɪ/
hey interjection: an exclamation to get attention. Also the alternative spelling of he.
Interjection
(informal)
- An exclamation to get attention.
- Hey, look at this!
- Hey! Listen!
- Synonyms:
- oi
- A protest or reprimand.
- Hey! Stop that!
- An expression of surprise.
- Hey! This is new!
- Synonyms:
- blimey
- An informal greeting, similar to hi.
- Hey! How's it going?
- Synonyms:
- hi
- A request for repetition or explanation; an expression of confusion.
- Hey? How's that?
- Used as a tag question, to emphasise what goes before or to request that the listener express an opinion about what has been said.
- "Who 's a cur - now - hey?"1900, Joseph Conrad, Lord Jim, page vi. 54
- A meaningless beat marker or extra, filler syllable in song lyrics.
- The chorus is "nana na na, nana na na hey hey hey, goodbye".
Verb
hey (third-person singular simple present heys, present participle heying, simple past and past participle heyed)
- To greet with a "hey"
Noun
hey (plural heys)
- A choreographic figure in which three or more dancers weave between one another, passing by left and right shoulder alternately.
Proper noun capitalized: Hey
Hey (plural Heys)
- A surname.
Also used as
hey is also the alternative spelling of he.
hey meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
hey in Hindi
- exclamation to get attention
- अरे are, अजी ajī, हे he, रे re
hey in Tamil
- exclamation to get attention
- ஏ ē, அடேய் aṭēy, டேய் ṭēy, ஏய் ēy
hey in Marathi
- अरे, अहो, हेय
hey in Urdu
- ارے, ارے،
More languagesFewer languages
- hey in Bengali
- আরে, হেই
- hey in Telugu
- హే
- hey in Malayalam
- ഹേയ്
- hey in Kannada
- ಹೇ
- hey in Punjabi
- ਹੇਏ, ਹੇ, ਹੇਅ
- hey in Gujarati
- હેય, અરે
- hey in Odia
- ଆରେ
- hey in Nepali
- हे, अहो
- hey in Tagalog
- hoy, uy, oy, huy
- hey in Arabic
- يَاه yāh, اسمع, هَلَا halā
- hey in Malay
- weh, wei, hoi, woi
- hey in Persian
- هی hey, هلا halâ
- hey in Vietnamese
- ê, này, ơi
Examples of hey in a sentence
- Hey, girl, I haven't seen you since last week! Where you been?
- Hey, did you mean to leave the airs on all week while you were on vacation?
- Hey, Homer, get a load of the gams on that filly!
Synonyms of hey
Forms of hey
| Interjection | |
|---|---|
| alternative form | hay |
| alternative form | heigh |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | heys |
| present participle | heying |
| past participle | heyed |
| past | heyed |
| Noun | |
| plural | heys |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Heys |
Origin of hey
From Middle English hey, hei, also without h- in ey, from Old English *hē, ēa (interjection), attested as first element in hēlā, ēalā (“O!, alas!, oh!, lo!”). Cognate with Dutch hé, hei (“hi, hey”), German hei (“hey, wow”), Danish and Swedish hej (“hello, hey”), Faroese hey (“hey, hello”), Old Norse, Icelandic and Norwegian hei (“hey”), Polish hej (“hey, hello”), Romanian hei, Russian эй (ej, “hey”); see heigh. Probably a natural expression, as may be inferred from its presence with similar meaning in many other unrelated languages: for example, Burmese ဟေး (he:), Finnish hei, Unami hè, and Mandarin 哎 (āi), and various sound-alikes as Ancient Greek εἶα (eîa) and Latin eia, eho, Sanskrit हे (he). See also hello.
From French haie (“hedge”), with reference to the weaving patterns used in hedgelaying. Doublet of hedge and quay.
See he.
Words formed from hey
Phrases with hey
Words that rhyme with hey
Questions about hey
- What does hey mean?
- Hey means an exclamation to get attention.
- What is hey in Hindi?
- Hey in Hindi is अरे (are), अजी (ajī), हे (he). See Hey meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is hey?
- Hey can be an interjection, a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce hey?
- Hey is pronounced /heɪ/.
Words near hey in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: hey (page history and authors); Hey (page history and authors); hey (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hey (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hey (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hey (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hey (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hey (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hey (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hey (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hey (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); hey (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Pvanp7-hey.wav, en-us-hey.ogg, EN-AU ck1 hey.ogg.
Cite this entry: “hey.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/hey. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.