Word.ws English Dictionary

holy cow

holy cow interjection: an exclamation of surprise or astonishment.

Interjection

  1. (euphemistic, idiomatic, minced oath) An exclamation of surprise or astonishment.
    • Holy cow I think he's gonna make it!1977, Jim Steinman, “Paradise by the Dashboard Light”, in Bat Out of Hell, performed by Meat Loaf ft. Phil Rizzuto
    Synonyms:
    wow

Synonyms of holy cow

Origin of holy cow

Minced oath for holy shit, possibly partially based on the fact that cows are sacred in some religions (e.g. Hinduism).

Questions about holy cow

What does holy cow mean?
Holy cow means an exclamation of surprise or astonishment.
What part of speech is holy cow?
Holy cow is an interjection.

Words near holy cow in the dictionary

  1. Holy Child I
  2. Holy Child II
  3. Holy Church
  4. Holy Coat
  5. Holy Communion
  6. holy cow
  7. holy crap
  8. holy crap on a cracker
  9. holy crap on a stick
  10. holy cricket
  11. holy crickets

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: holy cow (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:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-au-holy cow.ogg.

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