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hey

Pronunciation: /heɪ/

The English word “hey” has 9 meanings listed here.

interjection

  1. An exclamation to get attention.
  2. A protest or reprimand.
  3. An expression of surprise.
  4. An informal greeting, similar to hi.
  5. A request for repetition or explanation; an expression of confusion.
  6. Used as a tag question, to emphasise what goes before or to request that the listener express an opinion about what has been said.
  7. A meaningless beat marker or extra, filler syllable in song lyrics.

verb

  1. To greet with a "hey"

noun

  1. A choreographic figure in which three or more dancers weave between one another, passing by left and right shoulder alternately.

Etymology

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,…

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.