what the hell

English

Etymology

Shortened from earlier what in the hell.

Pronunciation

• Audio (AU)

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Phrase

what the hell

1. (mildly vulgar, slang) An intensive form of what.

   What the hell is going on?

2. (mildly vulgar, slang) Why not? or Who cares?

   It’s expensive, but what the hell, you only live once.

   Surprisingly, dieters ate more ice cream after eating a large milkshake than after eating a small one. Dr. Polivy calls this the “What the hell” effect, which she describes as thinking “What the hell, my diet’s already broken, so I might as well eat everything in sight.”

Usage notes

• Thought to be more vulgar in the US whilst less vulgar in the UK, Canada and Australia.

Synonyms

• the hell
• what the heck
• what on earth

Derived terms

• the hell

Related terms

• See the hell

Translations

an intensive form of what

• Arabic: مَاذَا بِحَقّ اَلسَّمَاء‎ (māḏā bi-ḥaqq as-samāʾ)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 什麼鬼, 什么鬼 (shénme guǐ?)

  Cantonese: 乜鬼

• Danish: hvad helvede
• Dutch: wat voor de donder?, wat donder?
• Finnish: mitä helvettiä?, mitä hittoa?
• German: was zum Teufel?
• Greek: τι διάολο; (ti diáolo?), τι στο διάολο; (ti sto diáolo?), τι στο καλό; (ti sto kaló?)
• Hebrew: מָה לַעֲזָאזֵל‎ (ma laazazél)
• Hungarian: mi a fene
• Icelandic: hvað í fjandanum?, hvað í helvítinu?
• Italian: che diavolo? cosa diavolo? (literally “the Devil's thing”)
• Japanese: 一体なんだ？ (いったいなんだ？, ittai nan da?), 一体全体なんだ？ (いったいぜんたいなんだ？, ittai-zentai nan da?), なんだよ、これ？ (nan da yo, kore?)
• Korean: 알게 뭐야? (Alge mwoya?)

• Low German:

  German Low German: wat to'n Düvel?

• Navajo: shash líyáadi
• Norwegian: hva i helvete?, hva faen?
• Persian: چه مرگته؟‎, چه مرضته؟‎
• Portuguese: que diabos?
• Romanian: ce dracu
• Russian: что за чёрт? (što za čórt?), како́го чёрта? (ru) (kakóvo čórta?), что за чертовщи́на? (što za čertovščína?), что за фигня́? (što za fignjá?), како́го хре́на? (kakóvo xréna?) (vulgar), како́го ху́я? (ru) (kakóvo xúja?) (vulgar), что за хуйня́? (što za xujnjá?) (vulgar)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Roman: koji vrag?, (slang, very vulgar) koji kurac?

• Spanish: qué diablos
• Swedish: vad i helvete?, vad tusan?, vad fan, vafan (sv)
• Vietnamese: éo biết (vi), cái quái gì

why not?

• Danish: hvad fanden
• Dutch: lekker boeiend, ach schijt
• Finnish: mitä hittoa
• German: was soll's, scheiß drauf
• Hungarian: egye fene
• Icelandic: skítt með það

• Italian: che diavolo, perche no
• Norwegian: faen heller, søren heller
• Portuguese: que se dane, dane-se (pt)
• Russian: чем чёрт не шу́тит? (čem čórt ne šútit?), была́ не была́ (ru) (bylá ne bylá), чёрт с ним (čórt s nim)
• Swedish: vad fan

See also

• the hell you say