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wah lau

[ˈwɑ˦˨ ˌlaʊ˨˧ eː˨]

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Malaysia/ˈwɑː ˌlaʊ/

wah lau interjection: an exclamation of annoyance or exasperation.

Interjection

  1. (Manglish, Singlish) An exclamation of annoyance or exasperation.
    • "Wah lau! You tekan him, ah? But he bigger than you, man!"1992 February 22, soc.culture.asean (Usenet)
    • Colleague: Hey, you know what I heard? John is only a FA artist in the States! / Ben: Wah lau! And he becomes our creative director, making us look stupid!2002, Jack Neo, I Not Stupid, spoken by Mr. Liu's colleague and Ben (Unknown actor and Hossan Leong)

Forms of wah lau

alternative formwalao
alternative formwalau
alternative formwah lau eh
alternative formwalao eh
alternative formwalau eh

Origin of wah lau

From Teochew and Hokkien. Ultimate origin uncertain: first element equivalent to Hokkien 我 (óa, “my”) + lau, possibly from 老爸 (lāu-pē, “father”). Alternatively, a shortening of Hokkien 我老的 (óa lāu--ê, literally “my elderly [someone, e.g., father]”), from which the alternative forms wah lau eh and walao eh are derived. Compare Mandarin 哇老誒 /哇老诶 (wà láo ei).

Questions about wah lau

What does wah lau mean?
Wah lau means an exclamation of annoyance or exasperation.
What part of speech is wah lau?
Wah lau is an interjection.
How do you pronounce wah lau?
Wah lau is pronounced /ˈwɑː ˌlaʊ/ (Malaysia).

Words near wah lau in the dictionary

  1. wagwants
  2. Wagweno
  3. wagyu
  4. wagyus
  5. wah
  6. wah lau
  7. wah lau eh
  8. wah pedal
  9. wah pedals
  10. wah wah
  11. wah-wah

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wah lau (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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