Word.ws English Dictionary

wahala

wahala noun: trouble; problem.

Noun

wahala (uncountable)

  1. (Nigeria) trouble; problem.
    • Oscar flashed me another bent grin, palmed a pistol from under the seat and said, "First time in Nigeria? No wahalla, you are always protected sa."2005, Paul Carter, Don't Tell Mum I Work on the Rigs, Crows Nest: Allen and Unwin, page 133

Forms of wahala

alternative formwahalla

Origin of wahala

From Yoruba wàhálà, from Hausa wàhalā̀, from Arabic وَهْلَة (wahla, “fright, terror”).

Questions about wahala

What does wahala mean?
Wahala means trouble; problem.
What part of speech is wahala?
Wahala is a noun.

Words near wahala in the dictionary

  1. Wahabite
  2. Wahabites
  3. Wahabitism
  4. Wahabits
  5. Wahabs
  6. wahala
  7. wahalla
  8. Wahba
  9. Wahbas
  10. Wahconda
  11. WAHD

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wahala (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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