"whammo" meaning in English

See whammo in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Interjection

IPA: /ˈwæməʊ/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˈwæmoʊ/ [General-American], /ˈhwæmoʊ/ (note: without the wine–whine merger) Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-whammo.wav [Southern-England]
Rhymes: -æməʊ Etymology: wham + -o Etymology templates: {{suffix|en|wham|o}} wham + -o Head templates: {{en-interj}} whammo
  1. (informal) Used to emphasize the suddenness of an event. Tags: informal Synonyms: blammo
    Sense id: en-whammo-en-intj-u8n68Btw Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English terms suffixed with -o Disambiguation of English terms suffixed with -o: 82 18

Noun

IPA: /ˈwæməʊ/ [Received-Pronunciation], /ˈwæmoʊ/ [General-American], /ˈhwæmoʊ/ (note: without the wine–whine merger) Audio: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-whammo.wav [Southern-England] Forms: whammos [plural]
Rhymes: -æməʊ Etymology: wham + -o Etymology templates: {{suffix|en|wham|o}} wham + -o Head templates: {{en-noun}} whammo (plural whammos)
  1. (informal) An action-packed scene in a film, etc. Tags: informal
    Sense id: en-whammo-en-noun-beWCutZ7

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

Download JSON data for whammo meaning in English (4.1kB)

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  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "wham",
        "3": "o"
      },
      "expansion": "wham + -o",
      "name": "suffix"
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  ],
  "etymology_text": "wham + -o",
  "head_templates": [
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      "name": "en-interj"
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  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "intj",
  "senses": [
    {
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        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
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          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "82 18",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English terms suffixed with -o",
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      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "So, I'm driving along when, whammo, a tree falls in front of the car.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1951 November 5, “The Younger Generation”, in Time Magazine",
          "text": "\"Sure, the boys say, 'What's the use? I'd just get started and whammo, I'm gone.'\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1983 April 16, Nancy Walker, “Spring Surprises”, in Gay Community News, page 6",
          "text": "Every year I try to catch the first buds as they break out of their winter closets, and every year I miss. One day you hit the street on your way to your day's routine and there it is, whammo, LIFE, popping up and out all over the place.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1988, David Quammen, The Flight of the Iguana",
          "text": "He lifted one foot and set it down again, whammo, but Ed was so engrossed in Pynchon's novel that all he recalls is tromping the scorpion to death with his stung foot, then quickly fetching a bucket of ice water, jamming the foot into it, and continuing to read.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Used to emphasize the suddenness of an event."
      ],
      "id": "en-whammo-en-intj-u8n68Btw",
      "links": [
        [
          "suddenness",
          "suddenness#English"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) Used to emphasize the suddenness of an event."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "blammo"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈwæməʊ/",
      "tags": [
        "Received-Pronunciation"
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    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈwæmoʊ/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈhwæmoʊ/",
      "note": "without the wine–whine merger"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-æməʊ"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-whammo.wav",
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      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (Southern England)"
    }
  ],
  "word": "whammo"
}

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  ],
  "etymology_text": "wham + -o",
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      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
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  ],
  "head_templates": [
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      "args": {},
      "expansion": "whammo (plural whammos)",
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  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2006, David Bordwell, The Way Hollywood Tells it: Story and Style in Modern Movies, page 113",
          "text": "[…] dawdles for 15 minutes before presenting a mild whammo. The whammos start at about 33 minutes and then pile up at 36 minutes, 40 minutes, 50 minutes, 59 minutes, and 64 minutes.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An action-packed scene in a film, etc."
      ],
      "id": "en-whammo-en-noun-beWCutZ7",
      "links": [
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          "action-packed"
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          "scene"
        ],
        [
          "film",
          "film"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) An action-packed scene in a film, etc."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
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      "ipa": "/ˈwæməʊ/",
      "tags": [
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    {
      "ipa": "/ˈwæmoʊ/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈhwæmoʊ/",
      "note": "without the wine–whine merger"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-æməʊ"
    },
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      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
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  "word": "whammo"
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{
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    "English terms with IPA pronunciation",
    "English terms with audio links",
    "Rhymes:English/æməʊ",
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        {
          "text": "So, I'm driving along when, whammo, a tree falls in front of the car.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1951 November 5, “The Younger Generation”, in Time Magazine",
          "text": "\"Sure, the boys say, 'What's the use? I'd just get started and whammo, I'm gone.'\"",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1983 April 16, Nancy Walker, “Spring Surprises”, in Gay Community News, page 6",
          "text": "Every year I try to catch the first buds as they break out of their winter closets, and every year I miss. One day you hit the street on your way to your day's routine and there it is, whammo, LIFE, popping up and out all over the place.",
          "type": "quotation"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1988, David Quammen, The Flight of the Iguana",
          "text": "He lifted one foot and set it down again, whammo, but Ed was so engrossed in Pynchon's novel that all he recalls is tromping the scorpion to death with his stung foot, then quickly fetching a bucket of ice water, jamming the foot into it, and continuing to read.",
          "type": "quotation"
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      ],
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      "raw_glosses": [
        "(informal) Used to emphasize the suddenness of an event."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
      ]
    }
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    {
      "ipa": "/ˈwæmoʊ/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈhwæmoʊ/",
      "note": "without the wine–whine merger"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-æməʊ"
    },
    {
      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-whammo.wav",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/4/46/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-whammo.wav/LL-Q1860_%28eng%29-Vealhurl-whammo.wav.mp3",
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      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (Southern England)"
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  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "blammo"
    }
  ],
  "word": "whammo"
}

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    "English countable nouns",
    "English interjections",
    "English lemmas",
    "English nouns",
    "English terms suffixed with -o",
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    "English terms with audio links",
    "Rhymes:English/æməʊ",
    "Rhymes:English/æməʊ/2 syllables"
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  "etymology_text": "wham + -o",
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        "Quotation templates to be cleaned"
      ],
      "examples": [
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          "ref": "2006, David Bordwell, The Way Hollywood Tells it: Story and Style in Modern Movies, page 113",
          "text": "[…] dawdles for 15 minutes before presenting a mild whammo. The whammos start at about 33 minutes and then pile up at 36 minutes, 40 minutes, 50 minutes, 59 minutes, and 64 minutes.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "An action-packed scene in a film, etc."
      ],
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          "scene"
        ],
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          "film"
        ]
      ],
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        "(informal) An action-packed scene in a film, etc."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "informal"
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      "ipa": "/ˈwæmoʊ/",
      "tags": [
        "General-American"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ˈhwæmoʊ/",
      "note": "without the wine–whine merger"
    },
    {
      "rhymes": "-æməʊ"
    },
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      "audio": "LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-whammo.wav",
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      "tags": [
        "Southern-England"
      ],
      "text": "Audio (Southern England)"
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  ],
  "word": "whammo"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-04-17 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-01 using wiktextract (0b52755 and 5cb0836). 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.