Word.ws English Dictionary

hey presto

hey presto interjection: used by stage magicians, when performing a magic trick.

Interjection

  1. (UK) Used by stage magicians, when performing a magic trick.
  2. (UK, colloquial) Indicates a sudden desirable conclusion or change, as if by magic
    • If you take the next left, you’ll see a big shop and hey presto, you’re there.
    • They stick a couple of old potshards together, search for one or two adjacent cultures, stick a label on the restored find and—hey, presto!—once again everything fits splendidly into the approved pattern of thought.1968, Erich von Däniken, Chariots of the Gods?, Putnam

Synonyms of hey presto

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All synonyms of hey presto

Questions about hey presto

What does hey presto mean?
Hey presto means used by stage magicians, when performing a magic trick.
What part of speech is hey presto?
Hey presto is an interjection.

Words near hey presto in the dictionary

  1. hey hey
  2. hey ho
  3. hey Joe
  4. hey mister
  5. hey pass
  6. hey presto
  7. hey rube
  8. hey rubes
  9. hey there
  10. hey up
  11. hey ya

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hey presto (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-hey presto.wav.

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