How to Write 喔 (ō/wō) — Meaning “oh / (sound of a rooster)”

Imagine a rooster standing on top of a house (屋) and opening its mouth (口) to crow "Oh!" The picture of the rooster and house together helps you recall that 喔 means both an exclamation and a rooster sound. The mouth and house combine to make the sound ō.

First write the left 口 (three strokes: vertical, horizontal, bottom horizontal), then the right part 屋 (start with 尸, then add 至). Make sure the left 口 is small and sits at the upper-left of the right part. A common mistake is writing 口 too large or misplacing the strokes in 屋, especially the final dot of 至.

喔 has the mouth radical 口 on the left and means an exclamation or rooster sound. In contrast, 哥 is made of two 可 (can) stacked and means "elder brother." Their meanings are completely different, and 哥 has no connection to sounds or mouths.

喔 is used as an interjection to express surprise, realization, or mild emotion, like the English "oh." It also appears in the onomatopoeia 喔喔 (wō wō) for a rooster's crow, similar to "cock-a-doodle-doo." Another common word is 喔唷 (ō yō), meaning "oh my!" or "whoops!" in casual speech.

Common words containing 喔 include: 喔 (ō) — oh / (sound of a rooster); 喔喔 (wō wō) — cock-a-doodle-doo; 喔唷 (ō yō) — oh my! / whoops!.