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oops. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
oops, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
oops in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
oops you have here. The definition of the word
oops will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
oops, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
English
Etymology
A presumably 'natural' exclamation, attested in writing since 1921. Related to or a variation of whoops (itself attested since 1933). A shortening of whoops-a-daisy, whoopsie-daisy, or oops-a-daisy, which in turn is a mispronunciation of ups-a-daisy or upsy-daisy.
Pronunciation
Interjection
oops
- (colloquial) Acknowledging a mistake.
- Synonyms: oopsy, uh-oh, whoops, whoops-a-daisy
Oops! I left the lid off the ketchup.
2000, Max Martin, Rami Yacoub (lyrics and music), “Oops!… I Did It Again”, in Oops!… I Did It Again, performed by Britney Spears:Oops, I did it again / I played with your heart, got lost in the game
Derived terms
Translations
acknowledging a minor mistake
- Arabic: آهٍ (ar) (ʔāhin)
- Breton: chaous (br)
- Catalan: vaja (ca)
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 哎呀 (zh) (āiyā, āiyá), 啊哈 (zh) (āhā)
- Czech: jejda (cs)
- Danish: ups (da), hovsa
- Dutch: oeps (nl), oei (nl), ai (nl), amaai (Belgian Dutch expression)
- Esperanto: ups, oj (eo)
- Finnish: ups (fi), oho (fi), hups (fi), upsista, hupsis, hupsista
- French: oups (fr), houp! (fr)
- Georgian: უი (ui), ვაი (vai), უფს (ups)
- German: ups (de), huch (de), hoppla (de)
- Greek: ουπς (el) (oups)
- Hebrew: אוּפְּס (he) (ups)
- Hungarian: hoppá (hu), hopp (hu), ajjaj (hu)
- Icelandic: úps, æ (is), obbosí
- Indonesian: ups
- Irish: hoips, úps
- Italian: ups, ops (it)
- Japanese: おっと (ja) (otto), しまった (shimatta), あら (ja) (ara), おや (ja) (oya), あらら (arara)
- Korean: 아차 (ko) (acha)
- Malay: oop
- Navajo: yíh, wah, waháá
- Polish: oj (pl), ups (pl)
- Portuguese: opa (pt), ops (pt)
- Romanian: ups
- Russian: ой (ru) (oj), упс (ru) (ups) (neologism), ох (ru) (ox)
- Serbo-Croatian: ups, jao (sh), (slang, from English "shit") šit (sh), ajoj, joj (sh)
- Spanish: ops (es), ups (es)
- Swedish: hoppsan (sv), oj (sv)
- Tagalog: ay (tl)
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used sarcastically to acknowledge a major mistake
Translations to be checked
Noun
oops (plural oopses or oops)
- A minor mistake or unforseen difficulty.
2011, Housetraining, →ISBN, page 14:It's an oops, but one that's your fault, not your puppy's.
2013, Bruce Tucker, Leadership at the Crossroads, →ISBN:Every plan and every activity has an “oops.” Oops, we forgot to..., oops, who was supposed to do that? We all have experienced “oopses”.
2014, Al Rennie, Clearwater Oops!, →ISBN:Isn't she the same woman who works at Wings that you and Billy almost got arrested for helping her with her last little oops?
2015, Dawn Klehr, If You Wrong Us, →ISBN:My parents had moved to this house, which sat on the border of Corktown and Mexicantown, from their tiny apartment in Ann Arbor—once they found out that their little oops was actually two little oops.
Verb
oops (third-person singular simple present oopses, present participle oopsing, simple past and past participle oopsed)
- (intransitive, colloquial) To make a mistake; to blunder.
Translations
Anagrams