Word.ws English Dictionary

oh, the humanity

oh, the humanity interjection: said in dismay, often sarcastically.

Interjection

  1. Said in dismay, often sarcastically.

Origin of oh, the humanity

Originated from U.S. broadcaster Herbert Morrison (1905–1989) during his coverage of the Hindenburg disaster: "This is terrible! This is one of the worst of the worst catastrophes in the world! Oh, it's—it's—it's flames... climbing—Oh!—four- or five-hundred feet into the sky; and it—it's a terrific crash, ladies and gentlemen. There's smoke; and there's flames, now; and the frame is crashing to the ground, not quite to the mooring-mast. Oh, the humanity; and all the passengers screaming around here! [Emphasis added]"

Questions about oh, the humanity

What does oh, the humanity mean?
Oh, the humanity means said in dismay, often sarcastically.
What part of speech is oh, the humanity?
Oh, the humanity is an interjection.

Words near oh, the humanity in the dictionary

  1. oh, my God
  2. oh, my gosh
  3. oh, my stars and garters
  4. oh, snap
  5. oh, someone of little faith
  6. oh, the humanity
  7. oh, well
  8. oh, ye of little faith
  9. oh, you
  10. oh-dark-thirty
  11. oh-em-gee

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: oh, the humanity (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-oh, the humanity.wav.

Cite this entry: “oh, the humanity.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/oh%2C_the_humanity. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.