waw
part of speech
noun (waw, also vav or vau — a letter); fragment
meaning for a pupil
1) Waw (also spelled vav or vau) is the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet; in Hebrew it can sound like "v" or stand for an "o" or "u" sound. tree →
2) (Bible) In some Bibles, Psalm 119 is divided into 22 parts, each headed by a Hebrew letter in order, and the sixth part is headed «Vau» or «Waw». tree →
3) Waw is also the name of the Arabic letter و, which sounds like "w" or a long "oo". It is not an English word. tree →
sense in the lessons
On its own, «waw» is not an English word. In church and Bible lessons, pupils may notice the Hebrew letter names (Aleph, Beth, Gimel… Waw) above the sections of Psalm 119, a long poem about God's law; Jews and Christians believe the Psalms are holy writing. In language lessons comparing alphabets, waw is a shared letter in Hebrew and Arabic, both written from right to left. Online, «waw» sometimes appears as a misspelling of «wow». Phrases: «the letter waw», «Psalm 119: Waw».
examples
- (Bible) Psalm 119 has a section headed Waw. tree →
- Waw is the sixth letter of the Hebrew alphabet. tree →
- In Arabic, the letter waw (و) can sound like "w". tree →
- Hebrew and Arabic are written from right to left, and both have a letter waw. tree →
- The Hebrew word for "and" starts with waw. tree →
- "Waw!" — she meant "wow", but she typed it too fast. tree →
note
Spellings vary: waw, vav, vau. In Hebrew and Arabic, a single waw at the start of a word often means "and". If you see «waw» in a chat message, it is probably a typo or playful spelling of «wow».
In the corpora
- wǒ jiā («waw JYAH») means my home and my family; «dào wǒ jiā» is a real invitation.
- gāi wǒ le («GUY waw luh») means my turn; grabbing while you say it starts a quarrel.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «waw» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.