Word.ws English Dictionary

what in tarnation

what in tarnation interjection: used to add emphasis to "what" when beginning a question.

Interjection

what in tarnation?

  1. (idiomatic) Used to add emphasis to "what" when beginning a question.
    • 2003. Judith Silverstein, Michael Lasky, "Online dating for dummies"
      What in Tarnation to Write I still remember the first girl I called up for a date at age 15.
    • Other euphemisms of this type (and there are many) include what in tarnation for what in damnation and what the Sam Hill for what the damn hell.2005. Charles Harrington Elster, "What in the word?", Page 35
    Synonyms:
    what the dickens, what on Earth, what the Devil, what the fuck

Synonyms of what in tarnation

Questions about what in tarnation

What does what in tarnation mean?
What in tarnation means used to add emphasis to "what" when beginning a question.
What part of speech is what in tarnation?
What in tarnation is an interjection.

Words near what in tarnation in the dictionary

  1. what has someone done
  2. what hath God wrought
  3. what have you
  4. what ho
  5. what if
  6. what in tarnation
  7. what in the world
  8. what in time
  9. what is her name
  10. what is his name
  11. what is it

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: what in tarnation (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-what in tarnation.ogg.

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