Chinese symbol for “whoa”

哇靠

wā kào

(Tw) whoa!; holy crap! jeez! (from Taiwanese 我哭, Tai-lo pr. [goá khàu], "I cry!")

The closest CC-CEDICT match for whoa is 哇靠 (wā kào), defined as: (Tw) whoa!; holy crap! jeez! (from Taiwanese 我哭, Tai-lo pr. [goá khàu], "I cry!").

Before using these characters for a tattoo, check them with a native speaker. Dictionary words often have several meanings, and the right choice depends on context.

Characters and stroke order

哇 wā

to vomit; an infant's cry

radical 30 ⼝ · 9 strokes

靠 kào

nearby; to depend on, to lean on, to trust

radical 175 ⾮ · 15 strokes

Related words

Other words that share a character with 哇靠.

Word	Pinyin	Meaning
哇哇	wā wā	sound of crying
好哇	hǎo wā	hurray!; hurrah!
卡哇伊	kǎ wā yī	cute; adorable
哇塞	wā sāi	(slang) wow!; also pr. [wa1sei1]
哇噻	wā sāi	variant of 哇塞 (wā sāi)
卡哇依	kǎ wā yī	variant of 卡哇伊 (kǎ wā yī)
依靠	yī kào	to rely on; to depend on
可靠	kě kào	reliable

See also: Japanese symbol for “whoa”.

Data: CC-CEDICT (CC BY-SA 4.0); Unihan Database (Unicode License v3); Make Me a Hanzi (Arphic Public License (graphics.txt); LGPL-3.0-or-later (dictionary.txt)); wordfreq (CC BY-SA 4.0 (data)). Retrieved 2026-10-22.