Meanings
alternative oh-so
- not comparablevery, extremely (often ironic)
He is, reputedly, a dashing Casanova and receives oh so many letters from oh so many femmes.
1997, Hugh Aaron, Letters from the Good War: A Young Man's Discovery of the World, Stones Point Press, →ISBN, page 3143 more examples
His oh-so-witty (ugh) remarks on the loud hailer constitute one more proof that this instrument has minimal value on a pleasure boat.
1971 July–August, Capt. Jacque Cestlabote, “Restrain Sloan Wilson!”, in Boating, →ISSN, page 8[…]it’s truly incredible how similar the Finder’s behaviors are today to that oh-so-crude yet oh-so-amazing Finder of 1984
2011, Scott Granneman, Mac OS X Snow Leopard for Power Users: Advanced Capabilities and Techniques, Apress, →ISBN, page 51there is something vulnerable-making about learning a language, when your normal ease of expression crumbles and you have to start again like a child acquiring speech for the first time, but oh, so much more slowly.
2026 August 4, Charlotte Higgins, “‘The war leaked into every lesson’: learning Ukrainian in a country under siege”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian, London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC
Origin
From oh (interjection) + so (adverb).
Full word history & related roots →Translations
French ô combien
- ô combienvery, extremely (often ironic)
Swedish ack så
- ack såvery, extremely (often ironic)
Cite this entry
oh so. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/oh%20so
“oh so.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/oh%20so. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “oh so,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/oh%20so.
Source: oh so on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.