ew

«ew» in Mova's school dictionary: a sound people make to show disgust, when something seems… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

interjection (informal; also «eww», «ewww»)

meaning for a pupil

(informal) "Ew!" is a sound people make to show disgust, when something seems dirty, smelly or gross. tree →

sense in the lessons

Very common in children's speech, chat and comics, especially in North America but now everywhere. It tells the reader that a character finds something disgusting, like slime, a bug or kissing. In writing, the more w's, the stronger the feeling ("ewwww"). Phrases: «Ew, gross!», «Eww, that's disgusting».

examples

• Ew! There's a slug in my shoe! tree →
• "Ew, gross!" said Chloe when her brother burped. tree →
• Eww, this milk smells off. tree →
• "They're kissing!" "Ewww!" tree →
• Ew, don't touch that, it's sticky. tree →
• The class all said "ew" when the teacher showed the worm. tree →

note

An interjection, not a full word; usually written with an exclamation mark. Pronounced like "eee-oo". Spelling varies (ew, eww, ewww). Similar: yuck, ugh, gross. It is informal, so not used in school essays except in speech marks.

In the corpora

• Lily whispered, «I think he likes you.» Maddie said «ew!» and then giggled.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «ew» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.