Word.ws English Dictionary

in heaven's name

in heaven's name prepositional phrase: an intensifier, chiefly used with questions.

Prepositional phrase (1)

  1. (idiomatic) An intensifier, chiefly used with questions.
    • What in heaven's name are you doing?
    • Who in heaven's name told you to do that?

Prepositional phrase (2) capitalized: in Heaven's name

  1. Alternative letter-case form of in heaven's name.
    • “Why, thus I mean it. He thinks he sees him; but, if he does, upon my honour, he sees a ghost,” and Dangerfield chuckled merrily. / “Pray, Mr. Dangerfield, consider me, and be serious, and in Heaven’s name explain,” said Mervyn, speaking, evidently, in suppressed anguish.1863, J[oseph] Sheridan Le Fanu, “How a Gentleman Paid a Visit at the Brass Castle, and There Read a Paragraph in an Old Newspaper”, in The House by the Church-yard. […], volume III, London: Tinsley...
    • “I’ve got a woman,” he said, and even to himself he sounded surprised. / “Then what in Heaven’s name are you playing at crime for?”1951, Philip Loraine [pseudonym; Robin Estridge], “Officer, Gentleman . . . and Fox”, in The Break in the Circle, New York, N.Y.: The M. S. Mill Co. and William Morrow & Co., part II (Semi-Circle)...

Synonyms of in heaven's name

Forms of in heaven's name

alternative formin Heaven's name

Questions about in heaven's name

What does in heaven's name mean?
In heaven's name means an intensifier, chiefly used with questions.
What part of speech is in heaven's name?
In heaven's name is a prepositional phrase.

Words near in heaven's name in the dictionary

  1. in hand
  2. in harness
  3. in haste
  4. in health
  5. in heat
  6. in heaven's name
  7. in hell
  8. in hell's name
  9. in hiding
  10. in high dudgeon
  11. in high feather

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: in heaven's name (page history and authors); in Heaven's name (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-in heaven's name.ogg.

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