"uh-uh" meaning in English

See uh-uh in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Interjection

IPA: [ˈ(ʔ)ʌ̃˧.ʔʌ̃˩] Audio: en-us-uh-uh.ogg [US]
Etymology: Likely imitative of non-verbal sounds used to indicate disagreement or discomfort. Compare nope, wherein the -p may represent closure often uttered at the end of the word no. Compare also um used to indicate hesitation. Attested from 1888. Etymology templates: {{glossary|imitative}} imitative, {{m|en|nope}} nope, {{m|en|no}} no, {{m|en|um}} um Head templates: {{en-interj}} uh-uh
  1. (informal) no Tags: informal Synonyms: huh-uh, uhuh

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for uh-uh meaning in English (2.0kB)

{
  "antonyms": [
    {
      "word": "uh-huh"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "imitative"
      },
      "expansion": "imitative",
      "name": "glossary"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "nope"
      },
      "expansion": "nope",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "no"
      },
      "expansion": "no",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "um"
      },
      "expansion": "um",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Likely imitative of non-verbal sounds used to indicate disagreement or discomfort. Compare nope, wherein the -p may represent closure often uttered at the end of the word no. Compare also um used to indicate hesitation. Attested from 1888.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "uh-uh",
      "name": "en-interj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "intj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with language name categories using raw markup",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English reduplicated coordinated pairs",
          "parents": [
            "Reduplicated coordinated pairs",
            "Coordinated pairs",
            "Reduplications",
            "Terms by etymology"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
          "parents": [
            "Terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "\"Have you eaten yet?\" \"Uh-uh.\" \"No way.\""
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "no"
      ],
      "id": "en-uh-uh-en-intj-k5Apjz-w",
      "links": [
        [
          "no",
          "no"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) no"
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "huh-uh"
        },
        {
          "word": "uhuh"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "[ˈ(ʔ)ʌ̃˧.ʔʌ̃˩]"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-uh-uh.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/41/En-us-uh-uh.ogg/En-us-uh-uh.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/En-us-uh-uh.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (US)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "uh-uh"
}
{
  "antonyms": [
    {
      "word": "uh-huh"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "imitative"
      },
      "expansion": "imitative",
      "name": "glossary"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "nope"
      },
      "expansion": "nope",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "no"
      },
      "expansion": "no",
      "name": "m"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "um"
      },
      "expansion": "um",
      "name": "m"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Likely imitative of non-verbal sounds used to indicate disagreement or discomfort. Compare nope, wherein the -p may represent closure often uttered at the end of the word no. Compare also um used to indicate hesitation. Attested from 1888.",
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "uh-uh",
      "name": "en-interj"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "intj",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English entries with language name categories using raw markup",
        "English informal terms",
        "English interjections",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English reduplicated coordinated pairs",
        "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
        "English terms with audio links",
        "English terms with non-redundant non-automated sortkeys"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "\"Have you eaten yet?\" \"Uh-uh.\" \"No way.\""
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "no"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "no",
          "no"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) no"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "[ˈ(ʔ)ʌ̃˧.ʔʌ̃˩]"
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-uh-uh.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/41/En-us-uh-uh.ogg/En-us-uh-uh.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/41/En-us-uh-uh.ogg",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (US)"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "huh-uh"
    },
    {
      "word": "uhuh"
    }
  ],
  "word": "uh-uh"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-22 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (fc4f0c7 and c937495). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.