why oh why
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.22 in modern English
29
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
2
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
phrase
A strengthened form of why, as used in questions.
Example Sentences
- "Why, oh why, oh why oh / Why did I ever leave Ohio?"
- "Are these terrible figures greeted by hysterical "why-oh-why?" letters to the Times demanding a huge shift in resources from road-building to rail-modernisation?"
- "Indeed, a right-wing paper is hardly ready for press without a why-oh-why article on children's failures to identify verbs and nouns."
- "To mark the introduction of civil partnership in Britain, the Daily Telegraph duly featured a bitter polemic from 'Why-oh-Why' columnist Ferdinand Mount."
- "David Starkey and John Casey, a donnish don from Cambridge who cranks out 'why, oh why?' hand-wringing pieces for the Daily Mail, are modern equivalents."
- "... the British health system, once the best in the world, was disintegrating in a welter of underfunding, staff shortages and collapsing morale. A hand-wringing why-oh-why piece appeared in the Daily Mail, an internal investigation was ordered."
Usage
- British usage