Ha

Part of speech: interjection

Definitions

1. An interjection typed or spoken to imitate laughter or to show that one finds something funny, startling or satisfying
2. A short exclamation representing a burst of laughter, or expressing surprise, triumph or sudden realization
3. A sound uttered to signal amusement, astonishment or victory, often written as a brief string of letters in messages

Etymology: "Ha" is an interjection, and one of the oldest sounds in English: it was first recorded in the early 14th century, long before the word had any settled meaning. Its basic job is to express surprise, laughter, or a sudden realization, and it appears in the same form across a remarkable number of unrelated languages, including Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Hungarian, Latin, Latvian, and Swedish. That kind of widespread resemblance usually means the sound was reached independently by many speakers rather than passed from one language to another, since a short exclamation of this shape is one of the easiest noises a human mouth can make. Because it imitates a vocal reaction rather than naming a thing, "ha" has no meaningful ancestor to trace. Its spelling has held steady for centuries while its use has spread: the repeated "ha-ha" of laughter, the sharper single "ha!" of triumph or discovery, and the drawn-out "haaa" of relief all grow from the same syllable.

Synonyms: ah, aha, hah