Meaning & use
hooray
Last updated
Meanings
interjection
A shout of joy, approval, or celebration.
Grammar: Used as an exclamation, often repeated: 'Hooray! Hooray!'
Patterns
- Hooray!
- Hooray for someone/something!
Hooray! We won the game!
The children shouted 'Hooray!' when the clown appeared.
Hooray for the weekend!
nouncountable
A cry of 'hooray'; a cheer.
Grammar: Usually used in the plural: 'the hoorays'.
Patterns
- give a hooray
- a chorus of hoorays
The crowd gave a loud hooray as the team scored.
A chorus of hoorays rose from the audience.
Word forms
| plural | hoorays |
|---|
Common combinations
- hooray for
- Hooray for the winners!
- shout hooray
- Everyone shouted hooray when the results were announced.
- hip hip hooray
- After the speech, the crowd chanted 'hip hip hooray'.
Synonyms and how they differ
- hurrah
- A variant spelling and pronunciation, often used in more formal or literary contexts.
- yay
- More informal and often used by children or in casual speech; 'hooray' is slightly more emphatic and can be used in public cheering.
Opposites
Commonly confused: hooray or horray?
hooray vs horray
This is a misspelling. The correct forms are 'hooray' and 'hurrah'.
Practice
Which is the correct spelling of the exclamation of joy?
Choose one answer.
The standard spelling is 'hooray'. 'Horray' is a common misspelling, and 'hoorah' is a less common variant.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “hooray”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.