Word.ws English Dictionary

va-va-voom

va-va-voom interjection: expressing that something is lively, sexy, passionate, or exciting.

Interjection

  1. (slang) Expressing that something is lively, sexy, passionate, or exciting.

Noun

va-va-voom (uncountable)

  1. (slang) Lively excitement or sexuality.

Origin of va-va-voom

The first documented use of the phrase is on the April 21, 1949 episode of The Morey Amsterdam Show. Art Carney portrays "Newton the waiter" in a sketch and uses the phrase. He later recorded a song entitled "Va Va Va Voom" (1954). It was popularized a year later by car mechanic Nick in the Hollywood classic Kiss Me Deadly (1955), which helped the catchphrase to be remembered and reused many decades later in advertisements and pop songs.

Questions about va-va-voom

What does va-va-voom mean?
Va-va-voom means expressing that something is lively, sexy, passionate, or exciting.
What part of speech is va-va-voom?
Va-va-voom can be an interjection or a noun.

Words near va-va-voom in the dictionary

  1. VA
  2. va banque
  3. va fangool
  4. va-jay-jay
  5. va-jay-jays
  6. va-va-voom
  7. Va.
  8. vaad
  9. vaads
  10. vaagmaer
  11. vaagmar

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: va-va-voom (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-va-va-voom.ogg.

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