woulda, coulda, shoulda
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.53 in modern English
30
Scrabble Score
19
Letters
5
Syllables
9
Unique Chars
Meaning
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.
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "Rahlves described the team's overall skiing performance here as, "woulda, shoulda, coulda—all that stuff. It sucks—we definitely came up very short.""
- "[S]uch a contentious reading of the 87-line tablet depends on creative interpretation of a smudged passage, making it the latest entry in the woulda/coulda/shoulda category of possible New Testament artifacts."
- "[H]e was talking about last night’s game and what it would have meant to have this roster last spring. . . . “Shoulda, coulda, woulda” he started. “If ifs and buts were candies and nuts, we’d all have a Merry Christmas, right?”"
- "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?"
- "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. sov- ereignty is cashed in under this agreement?"
Etymology
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.