Uh

Part of speech: interjection

Definitions

1. A vocal filler sound made to show hesitation or a pause while thinking of what to say next
2. An interjection spoken during a pause in speech to signal uncertainty, hesitation, or a moment of thought
3. A brief wordless noise people produce when they hesitate, search for words, or express mild doubt

Etymology: The interjection "uh" is onomatopoeic: it imitates the sound of a speaker pausing to think, a vowel held while the mind searches for the next word. It is not borrowed from another language or built from older English roots. Its closest relative is "er," which performs the same job and is also a sound rather than a word with a dictionary history behind it. Because it records a sound rather than a meaning, the spelling has never been fixed in the way ordinary vocabulary is. Writers render the same hesitation as "uh," "um," "er," "erm," or "ah," and each variant reflects how different speakers and writers have chosen to represent a murmur. Speakers across languages make similar vowel-like pauses, which is why the sound is so widely recognizable, even though each language spells it differently.

Synonyms: er, um, erm