Word.ws English Dictionary

or what

or what phrase: or something else; allows for the existence of an unexpressed alternative to what was said.

Phrase

or what

  1. (idiomatic) Or something else; allows for the existence of an unexpressed alternative to what was said.
    • How should he know or guess or what?1926, Theodore Dreiser, An American Tragedy, page 68
    • Do they check you at the door or what?" Michael laughed.1982, Armistead Maupin, Further Tales of the City, page 146

or what meaning in Tamil and Tagalog

or what in Tamil

Translations
என்ன eṉṉa

or what in Tagalog

Translations
o ano

Examples of or what in a sentence

  • You gonna cough up some new duds or what?2005, Annabelle du Fouet, “Kinksters and kinksterettes—Who are these people, anyway?” (chapter 1), in Weather Balloons Make Rotten Sex...
  • [S]he asked me, and like you, I didn't know if that was like having heart failure or what.2006, V.C. Andrews, Broken Flower, page 141:
  • I don't know if she was joking or what, but I joked back with her anyway. […].2007, Omar Tyree, What They Want: A Novel, page 95:

Questions about or what

What does or what mean?
Or what means or something else; allows for the existence of an unexpressed alternative to what was said.
What is or what in Tamil?
Or what in Tamil is என்ன (eṉṉa). See Or what meaning in Tamil.
How do you use or what in a sentence?
You gonna cough up some new duds or what?
What part of speech is or what?
Or what is a phrase.

Words near or what in the dictionary

  1. or not
  2. or should I say
  3. or so
  4. or so on
  5. or something
  6. or what
  7. or words to that effect
  8. or-molu
  9. or-molus
  10. or-moulu
  11. Or.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: or what (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: En-au-or what.ogg.

Cite this entry: “or what.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/or_what. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.