Word.ws English Dictionary

holy moley

holy moley interjection: synonym of wow, an expression of surprise.

Interjection

  1. (dated, euphemistic, humorous, idiomatic) Synonym of wow, an expression of surprise.
    • "Whew !" he whistled, softly; "that's curious. Same name as the lady at our place. Suppose he should be her husband. Holy moley, what a game. I've made a discovery.1892, Nathaniel Gould, Running it off; or, Hard hit
    Synonyms:
    wow

Synonyms of holy moley

Forms of holy moley

alternative formholy moly

Origin of holy moley

Originally a euphemism for Holy Mary, Molly being a nickname for Mary. Compare holy Moses.

Questions about holy moley

What does holy moley mean?
Holy moley means synonym of wow, an expression of surprise.
What part of speech is holy moley?
Holy moley is an interjection.

Words near holy moley in the dictionary

  1. holy mackerel
  2. holy man
  3. Holy Mary
  4. holy matrimonies
  5. holy matrimony
  6. holy moley
  7. holy moly
  8. Holy Monday
  9. holy Moses
  10. Holy Mother
  11. holy mother of based

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: holy moley (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: en-au-holy moley.ogg.

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