whoop
/wuːp/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 3.20 in modern English
13
Scrabble Score
5
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
A gasp, characteristic of whooping cough.
verb
To cough or breathe with a sonorous inspiration, as in whooping cough.
Example Sentences
- "Mixed with the whoop of the crane and the roar of the grim alligator."
- "[A] great whoop of victory sounded as finally they carried the fish up the beach."
- "Lavender Hearts has often been stopped by the presence of some wild woman who just can't contain her whoop or moan. Now that's community!"
- "."
- "The key to jamming through the whoops is to keep your weight to the back of the quad […] and keep the front wheels high […]"
- "The “98 MPH” sign used to be on a set of particularly vicious whoops at one of John's favorite racetracks."
Etymology
From Middle English whopen, whowpen, howpen, houpen (“to whoop, cry out”), partially from Old French houper, hopper, houpper (“to shout”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwōpan, from Proto-Germanic *hwōpaną (“to boast, threaten”) (compare Gothic 𐍈𐍉𐍀𐌰𐌽 (ƕōpan, “to boast”), Old English hwōpan (“to threaten”)); and partially from Middle English wop (“weeping, lamentation”), from Old English wōp (“cry, outcry, shrieking, weeping, lamentation”), from Proto-West Germanic *wōp, from Proto-Germanic *wōpaz (“shout, cry, wail”) (compare Old Norse ópa (“to cry, scream, shout”), Gothic 𐍅𐍉𐍀𐌾𐌰𐌽 (wōpjan, “to cry out”)).