what ho

what ho interjection: an exclamation of greeting, summons, or surprise.

Interjection

(Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, dated, informal) An exclamation of greeting, summons, or surprise.
- The Count’s in danger,—what ho! there! approach!1817 May 5, Lord Byron, “Letter CCLXXVIL To Mr. Murray.”, in Thomas Moore, editor, Letters and Journals of Lord Byron: With Notices of His Life, […], volume II, London: John Murray, […], published...
- What ho, there! All who are within hearing, return without fear. Caesar has tamed the lion.1912 February 6 (date written), [George] Bernard Shaw, “Androcles and the Lion”, in Androcles and the Lion, Overruled, Pygmalion, London: Constable and Company, published 1916, →OCLC, Act II, page 44

"[…]in he came, and I said ‘Oh, what ho!' and introduced Wally Mason.[…]"1920 April 10 – August 28, Pelham Grenville Wodehouse, The Little Warrior [Jill the Reckless], New York, N.Y.: George H[enry] Doran...
‘What ho!’ said Adrian, getting up to shut the door. ‘Treasons, stratagems and spoils.’1991 September, Stephen Fry, chapter 1, in The Liar, London: Heinemann, →ISBN, section I, page 18:

What does what ho mean?: What ho means an exclamation of greeting, summons, or surprise.
How do you use what ho in a sentence?: "[…]in he came, and I said ‘Oh, what ho!' and introduced Wally Mason.[…]"
What part of speech is what ho?: What ho is an interjection.

Adapted from Wiktionary: what ho (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: 2026-09-02

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