woulda, coulda, shoulda
woulda, coulda, shoulda phrase: an expression of dismissiveness or disappointment concerning a statement, question, explanation, course of action, or occurrence involving hypothetical possibilities, uncertain facts, or missed opportunities.
Phrase
woulda, coulda, shoulda
- An expression of dismissiveness or disappointment concerning a statement, question, explanation, course of action, or occurrence involving hypothetical possibilities, uncertain facts, or missed opportunities.
- President Clinton . . . had his clear shot at health-care reform, if we need it, he and his wife, but they blew it. As Mrs. Clinton might say, woulda coulda shoulda.1995 November 17, A. M. Rosenthal, “The Great Botch-Up”, in New York Times, retrieved 16 Jun 2015
- Rahlves described the team's overall skiing performance here as, "woulda, shoulda, coulda—all that stuff. It sucks—we definitely came up very short."2006 February 21, Mike Rowbottom, “Retirement talk works wonders for Dorfmeister”, in Independent, UK, retrieved 16 Jun 2015
Noun
woulda, coulda, shoulda (plural woulda, coulda, shouldas)
- An instance or moment of regret, hindsight, or futile pondering over a missed opportunity.
- But there a lot of talented people right down there on the street, singing their shoulda-coulda-wouldas, now is that how you wanna end up?1993, Bill Duke (director), Sister Act 2, spoken by Florence Watson (Sherry Lee Ralph)
- And, Dr. Lovett, would I be correct in saying that your basic complaint is, if you will allow me to characterize it as a "woulda, coulda, shoulda" in terms of lost opportunities and it isn't a good deal and we are not smart doing it, but that you do not take a fundamental position that the U.S....1994, United States, Congress, House, Committee on Ways and Means, The World Trade Organization, Hearing Before the Committee on Ways and Means, House of Representatives, One Hundred Third Congress...
Forms of woulda, coulda, shoulda
| Phrase | |
|---|---|
| alternative form | shoulda, coulda, woulda |
| alternative form | shoulda, woulda, coulda |
| alternative form | woulda, shoulda, coulda |
| alternative form | coulda, shoulda, woulda |
| alternative form | coulda, woulda, shoulda |
| Noun | |
| plural | woulda, coulda, shouldas |
Origin of woulda, coulda, shoulda
Derisively mimics the frequent perfect conditional forms (I would have done this and that) which are used when discussing events that may have occurred in the past.
Questions about woulda, coulda, shoulda
- What does woulda, coulda, shoulda mean?
- Woulda, coulda, shoulda means an expression of dismissiveness or disappointment concerning a statement, question, explanation, course of action, or occurrence involving hypothetical possibilities, uncertain facts, or missed opportunities.
- What part of speech is woulda, coulda, shoulda?
- Woulda, coulda, shoulda can be a phrase or a noun.
Words near woulda, coulda, shoulda in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: woulda, coulda, shoulda (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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Cite this entry: “woulda, coulda, shoulda.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/woulda%2C_coulda%2C_shoulda. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.