English

Prefix

Wo

1. (astronomy) the prefix of catalog entries in the Gliese star catalog, the Richard van der Riet Woolley expansion

Synonyms

• Gliese, Gl, GJ

See also

• NN
• Gliese Catalogue of Nearby Stars on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• ow

Luxembourgish

Etymology

From Old High German wāga. Cognate with German Waage.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /voː/
  • Rhymes: -oː

Noun

Wo f ‎(plural Woen)

1. balance, scales
2. Libra (constellation and astrological sign)

See also

• (Western astrology signs) Déierekreeszeechen; Widder, Stéier, Zwilling, Kriibs, Léiw, Jongfra, Wo, Skorpioun, Schëtz, Steebock, Waassermann, Fësch ^{(Category: lb:Astrology)}

English

Alternative forms

• whoa

Interjection

wo

1. A falconer's call to a hawk.
2. A call to cause a horse to slow down or stop; whoa.

Etymology 2

Variant of woe.

Noun

wo ‎(plural wos)

1. Obsolete spelling of woe
   • 1815, Philip Freneau, A collection of poems, on American affairs and a variety of other subjects, page 82:

     Such feeble arms, to work internal wo!

   • Hannah More

     But if there was a competition between a sick family and a new broach, the broach was sure to carry the day. This would not have been the case, had they been habituated to visit themselves the abodes of penury and wo.

Anagrams

• ow

Ewe

Pronoun

wo

1. them
2. they

German

Etymology

With widespread dialectal -ā- → -ō- from Middle High German wā, wār, from Old High German wār, hwār, from Proto-Germanic *hwēr, *hwar. Ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kʷis, whence also wer. Cognate with English where.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /voː/
• Rhymes: -oː

Adverb

wo

1. (interrogative) where

   Wo bist du?‎

   Where are you?

2. (relative) where

   Ich kenne einen Laden, wo solche Sachen verkauft werden.‎

   I know a shop where such things are sold.

3. (relative) when

   Das war der Tag, wo wir uns kennen gelernt haben.‎

   That was the day when we got to know each other.

4. (indefinite, colloquial) somewhere

   Ich wär gern wo, wo's wärmer ist.‎

   I'd like to be somewhere where it's warmer.

Usage notes

• The temporal use of wo (meaning “when”) is sometimes frowned upon in formal standard German. There is a tendency to use a preposition + relative pronoun instead: Das war der Tag, an dem wir uns kennen gelernt haben. (“That was the day on which we got to know each other.”) Nevertheless, this usage is very common in spoken German and also widely acceptable in writing. (Compare French où ‎(“where”), the temporal use of which is perfectly standard.)

Conjunction

wo

1. (colloquial) when

   Wo ich mich umgedreht hab, haut der mir unvermittelt eine rein.

   When I turned around, he just abruptly punched me in the face.

Usage notes

• This usage is exclusively colloquial and would be considered inappropriate in a formal text.

Synonyms

• als

Pronoun

wo

1. (relative, dialectal, nonstandard) who, whom, which, that

   Ich bin der, wo das kann.‎

   I'm the one who can do that.

Usage notes

• This use is dialectal and widely restricted to Alemannic areas (Switzerland and south-western Germany). In other regions, this usage is unusual, and scorned by some.

Related terms

• woanders, wobei

German Low German

Etymology 1

From Middle Low German wô ‎(“how”), from Old Saxon, from Proto-Germanic *hwō. Cognate with English how, German wie, Dutch hoe.

Alternative forms

• (in some dialects) woans

Pronunciation

• (in some dialects) IPA^(key): /vɔu̯/
• (traditional) IPA^(key): [wɔʊ̯]

Adverb

wo

1. how

   Wo vele dage?‎

   How many days?

Etymology 2

Compare English who, whom, whose.

Pronoun

wo

1. (Low Prussian, relative) who, which

   (Low Prussian) Dat, wo ös...

   That, which is...

Usage notes

The dative form (also used for the accusative) is woom (wom), the genitive form is woos (wos).

Haitian Creole

Etymology

From French haut ‎(“high”).

Adjective

wo

1. high
2. tall

Adverb

wo

1. high

Related terms

• wotè

Japanese

Romanization

wo

1. rōmaji reading of を
2. rōmaji reading of ヲ
3. rōmaji reading of うぉ
4. rōmaji reading of ウォ

Lower Sorbian

Preposition

wo

1. Superseded spelling of wó.

Luxembourgish

Verb

wo

1. second-person singular imperative of woen

Mandarin

Romanization

wo (Zhuyin ㄨㄛ˙)

1. Nonstandard spelling of wō.
2. Nonstandard spelling of wǒ.
3. Nonstandard spelling of wò.

Usage notes

• English transcriptions of Mandarin speech often fail to distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without the appropriate indication of tone.

Middle English

Noun

wo (plural wos)

1. Alternative form of woo

Saterland Frisian

Adverb

wo

1. how, to what degree

Zulu

Pronoun

-wo

1. Combining stem of wona.

See also