Word.ws English Dictionary

ofay

/ˈoʊfeɪ/

ofay noun: a white person.

Noun

ofay (plural ofays)

  1. (US, ethnic, slang, slur) A white person.
    • For example we have words like ofay, pink, fade, space, Mr. Charlie, cracker, peckawood, hoojah, and so on—nice words and bitter.[1929, Claude McKay, Banjo, published 1957, →ISBN, page 217
    • You get outa my alley, Lucas -- and take that ofay with you, hear?1983 May, Kurt Busiek, “The Chemistro Connection”, in Power Man and Iron Fist, volume 1, number 93, Marvel Comics Group
    Synonyms:
    honky, whitey, abelungu, ang moh, Angrez, balanda, béké, bule, cac, Caucasian

Adjective

ofay (comparative more ofay, superlative most ofay)

  1. (US, ethnic, slang, slur) White; white-skinned.
    • “You better tell your little ofay kid friend move along.”1963 (date written), John Kennedy Toole, A Confederacy of Dunces, London: Penguin Books, published 1980 (1981 printing), →ISBN
    • ‘Baby,’ April Elgar said, ‘you may be an uptight ofay milk-toast limey bastard, but you ain’t no fag.’1984. Anthony Burgess, Enderby's Dark Lady

Examples of ofay in a sentence

  • The rival, the foe, the ofay, veins stretched and bulged between white knuckles.1997, Don DeLillo, Underworld:
  • Everything is strictly peachy keen, as the ofay kids say.1959. Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun

Synonyms of ofay

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of ofay

Forms of ofay

Noun
pluralofays
Adjective
comparativemore ofay
superlativemost ofay

Origin of ofay

Unknown; perhaps from an African language (possibly Yoruba ófé (“to evade, disappear”)). Pig Latin for foe, though popularly posited, is probably not accurate. A possible point of origin is Cab Calloway's Hepster's Dictionary, where the word is defined as "Policeman or law enforcement, 'The Man'".

Questions about ofay

What does ofay mean?
Ofay means a white person.
How do you use ofay in a sentence?
The rival, the foe, the ofay, veins stretched and bulged between white knuckles.
What part of speech is ofay?
Ofay can be a noun or an adjective.
How do you pronounce ofay?
Ofay is pronounced /ˈoʊfeɪ/.
What is the plural of ofay?
The plural of ofay is ofays.

Words near ofay in the dictionary

  1. Ofala
  2. ofan
  3. ofanim
  4. OFAs
  5. ofatumumab
  6. ofay
  7. ofays
  8. OFB
  9. OFBank
  10. oFBD
  11. oFBDs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ofay (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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Cite this entry: “ofay.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ofay. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.