ope
/əʊp//oʊp/
ope interjection: an exclamation of surprise; oops. Also the clipping of operations.
Interjection
- An exclamation of surprise; oops.
- Ope! Sorry about that.
- Ope, let me just squeeze past ya there.
Adjective
ope (comparative more ope, superlative most ope)
- Open.
- Arriving there, as did by chaunce befall, / He found the gate wyde ope […].1596, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, VI.6
- We are all weary — faint — set ope the doors —
I will to bed! — To-morrow —1819, John Keats, Otho the Great, act 5, scene 5, verses 191-192
Verb
ope (third-person singular simple present opes, present participle oping, simple past and past participle oped)
- To open.
- Ere I ope his letter, / I pray you, tell me how my good friend doth.c. 1596–1598 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Merchant of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...
- The hour's now come, the very minute bids thee ope thine ear; obey and be attentive.1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published...
Noun (1)
ope (plural opes)
- An alley or narrow passage (an opening between houses, buildings, etc).
- Tonkin's Ope
- It formed part of the extensive network of opes across the city which used to carry dock workers down to the quay for work on the boats in the bustling Port of Truro.2018 October 4, Lee Trewhela, “The secrets of Truro’s hidden Carne’s Ope unveiled for the first time in 60 years”, in Cornwall Live
Noun (2) capitalized: OPE
OPE (plural OPEs)
- Initialism of octylphenol ethoxylate.
- The remaining 20% of the market consists of octylphenol ethoxylates (OPE) and other lesser-known alkylphenols.2008, Uri Zoller, Paul Sosis, editors, Handbook of Detergents, Part F: Production (Surfactant Science Series), CRC Press, →ISBN, page 66
Also used as
ope is also the clipping of operations.
Examples of ope in a sentence
- There came into many a burgher's pate / A text which says that heaven's gate / Opes to the rich at as easy rate / As the needle's eye takes a camel in!1842, Robert Browning, The Pied Piper of Hamelin:
- An order asserted itself, and the hoods on the furnaces were oped wide, and a final march was organized.2024 September 28, Harry Blank, “Not Ready for Prime Time”, in Deadlined, →ISBN, page 604:
Forms of ope
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more ope |
| superlative | most ope |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | opes |
| present participle | oping |
| past participle | oped |
| past | oped |
| Noun | |
| plural | opes |
| plural | OPEs |
Origin of ope
Representing oh pronounced with the mouth snapped closed at the end (IPA⁽ᵏᵉʸ⁾: /oʊp/, [oʊp̚]) (excrescent /p/); therefore oh + -p.
From Middle English ope (“open”), shortened form of open, from Old English open (“open”). More at open.
Words formed from ope
Words that rhyme with ope
Questions about ope
- What does ope mean?
- Ope means an exclamation of surprise; oops.
- How do you use ope in a sentence?
- There came into many a burgher's pate / A text which says that heaven's gate / Opes to the rich at as easy rate / As the needle's eye takes a camel in!
- What part of speech is ope?
- Ope can be an interjection, an adjective, a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce ope?
- Ope is pronounced /oʊp/ (US).
Words near ope in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ope (page history and authors); OPE (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: Teker "Ope".ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-ope.wav.
Cite this entry: “ope.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ope. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.