Whew

How to spell whew

4 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce whew

What does whew mean?

1. interjectionAn exclamation used to express relief, tiredness, or astonishment, imitating the sound of an exhaled breath.

Whew in a sentence

• Whew, the deadline got pushed back to next week after all.

• Whew, that hill was steeper than the map suggested.

Where does whew come from?

Language of origin: Other

Whew is an onomatopoeic word, meaning it was coined to imitate the very sound it names: a short, breathy whistle or a sharp exhalation of air. It appears in English from the late sixteenth century, first used to suggest a whistling noise made through pursed lips, and only later settled into its familiar role as an exclamation of relief, fatigue, or astonishment. The spelling deliberately stacks the 'wh' opening, once pronounced with an audible puff of breath, against the open 'ew' to mimic that gust of air leaving the lungs. It belongs to a small family of breath-and-sound words like 'phew', 'whoosh', and 'whoop', all of which trade on the same trick of writing down a noise. Because there is no Latin or Greek root to anchor it, the spelling is a matter of convention rather than logic, which is exactly why writers sometimes hesitate between 'whew' and the near-identical 'phew'.

How the word is built

• whew (an onomatopoeic interjection imitating a breathy whistle or exhaled breath)

Words that sound like whew

They sound the same but mean different things, so the meaning decides which spelling to write.

• hue: A colour or a particular shade or tint of a colour.