hey

CEFRA1

/heɪ/

interjection

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    interjection

    Used to attract attention or greet someone.

  2. 02

    interjection

    Extra detail

    A protest or reprimand.

Examples

  • Hey, Bob. Where do you have your car washed?

  • Hey, I may have no money, but I still have my pride.

At a glance

Sits at A1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
1
Synonyms
5

Deep Dive

interjection

Extra meanings

  1. An expression of surprise.

  2. An exclamation to get attention.

  3. An informal greeting, similar to hi.

More examples

In context

  • Hey, look, a three-headed monkey!

  • Hey, look at this!

  • Hey! Listen!

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

blank, do not go that way! It is dangerous.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

interjection

From Middle English hey, hei, also without h- in ey, from Old English *hē, ēa (interjection), attested as first element in hēlā, ēalā (“O!, alas!, oh!, lo!”). Cognate with Dutch hé, hei (“hi, hey”), German hei (“hey, wow”), Danish and Swedish hej (“hello, hey”), Faroese hey (“hey, hello”), Old Norse, Icelandic and Norwegian hei (“hey”), Polish hej (“hey, hello”), Romanian hei, Russian эй (ej, “hey”); see heigh. Probably a natural expression, as may be inferred from its presence with similar meaning in many other unrelated languages: for example, Burmese ဟေး (he:), Finnish hei, Unami hè, and Mandarin 哎 (āi), and various sound-alikes as Ancient Greek εἶα (eîa) and Latin eia, eho, Sanskrit हे...