wog

W4O1G2
UK/wɒɡ/US/wɔɡ/cot caught merger/wɑɡ/

noun

A non-white person, especially one of South Asian, Middle Eastern, or African descent.

UncommonScrabble 7

Meanings

wog1

nounwog (plural wogs)

plural wogs

  1. UKdatedethnicslurA non-white person, especially one of South Asian, Middle Eastern, or African descent.

    'One of the little Indian girls whose name is Polly has just come in to ask, " Miss D., what is a wog? One white boy called me a polliwog, and I thought a wog must be something bad."'

    1889, The American Missionary Volume 43 p. 81
    1 more example

    "The King Edward's Horse called the Indian Cavalry 'The Wogs'—which is the diminutive of 'Golliwogs',—a description that was very apt of these dark apparitions in khaki and tin-hats."

    1921, Lionel James, chapter 18, in The History of King Edward's Horse, page 188
  2. AustraliaSomeone of Mediterranean descent, such as an Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Lebanese, Greek, or Maltese person.

    'Every fucking aussie. Go to Cronulla Beach Sunday for some Leb and wog bashing Aussie Pride ok.'

    2015, Johnny Lieu, “Cronulla Riots: What happened on one of Australia's darkest days”, in Mashable

    Synonyms: wop, dago, dago, Eyetie, goombah, greaseball, guido, guinea

  3. attributiveoftenScientologyA person who is not a Scientologist.

    So yes, they do keep records, but no they are not 'accurate' in the wog world meaning of the word.

    1998 December 31, Hartley Patterson, “Documented Membership??”, in alt.religion.scientology (Usenet), message-ID <76gomd$tae$1@news4.svr.pol.co.uk>
    2 more examples

    I'm of course talking about Hubbard's books (including Book One) being extensively rewritten, and Scn's decision to remove any mention of LRH from materials intended for wogs.

    2007 June 21, Dave Touretzky, “date correction for DM's big revelation”, in alt.religion.scientology (Usenet), message-ID <467ab5da$1@news2.lightlink.com>

    At the Org there were mixed feelings towards wogs because, at any given time, there were wogs in our midst. Wogs coming in off the street in search of Scientology services were looked upon favourably […]

    2012, Bruce Clark, Love, Sex, Fleas, God
verbwog (third-person singular simple present wogs, present participle wogging, simple past and past participle wogged)

present singular third person wogs · participle present wogging · participle past wogged · past wogged

  1. AustraliaobsoleteWWII slangTo sell something, especially illicit or stolen goods, to the local inhabitants.
  2. AustraliaUKdatedTo steal.

wog2

nounwog (plural wogs)

plural wogs

  1. abbreviationclippingClipping of polliwog.
  2. slangnauticalA pollywog, or sailor who has never crossed the Equator.

wog3

nounwog (plural wogs)

plural wogs

  1. AustraliaslangA bug, an insect.
  2. AustraliaslangA minor illness caused by bacteria, virus, intestinal parasite, etc.
  3. AustraliaobsoleteslangA toy insect in parts that can be assembled, used in fund-raising games.

WOG4

proper nounWOG (plural WOGs)

plural WOGs

  1. abbreviationAbbreviation of Winter Olympic Games.
nounWOG (uncountable)
  1. abbreviationinitialismuncountablepiping; valves; piping; valvesInitialism of water-oil-gas, typically marked on valves that are acceptable for use with these fluids.

Wog5

proper nounWog (plural Wogs)

plural Wogs

WoG6

adjectiveWoG (comparative more WoG, superlative most WoG)

comparative more WoG · superlative most WoG

  1. abbreviationAbbreviation of whole-of-government.

Synonyms & antonyms

nounSomeone of Mediterranean descent, such as an Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Lebanese, Greek, or Maltese person.

Origin

wog · noun, verb

The origins are not entirely clear. The term was first noted by the lexicographer F.C. Bowen in 1929, in his Sea Slang: a dictionary of the old-timers’ expressions and epithets, where he defines wogs as "lower class Babu shipping clerks on the Indian coast." The most common theory is that it is a clipping of golliwog, which was first used as the name of a black-faced doll in Florence Upton’s 1895 book The Adventures of Two Dutch Dolls and a Golliwogg. A variety of folk etymologies exist, with the most common claiming that the word is an acronym for one of either westernized, worthy, wily, or wonderful preceding “Oriental gentlemen”. Another erroneous claim is that it was used in the mid 1800s, with WOGS (meaning Working On Government Service) stencilled on the shirts of Indian workers in Egypt. The Scientologist sense is from the usage of L. Ron Hubbard, who apparently accepted the folk etymology from “worthy Oriental gentleman” but employed the term to mean “common ordinary run-of-the-mill garden-variety humanoid”.

Full word history & related roots →

wog · noun

Clipping of polliwog (“a tadpole”).

Full word history & related roots →

wog · noun

Unknown. Probably from Etymology 2, a clipping of polliwog (“a tadpole”).

Full word history & related roots →

Translations

Danish perker
  • perkeran offensive term for a dark-skinned person
Finnish laku
  • lakuan offensive term for a dark-skinned person
French bougnoule
  • bougnoulean offensive term for a dark-skinned person
German Kanake, Ölauge
  • Kanakean offensive term for a dark-skinned person
  • Ölaugean offensive term for a dark-skinned person
Polish ciapaty, brudas
  • ciapatyan offensive term for a dark-skinned person
  • brudasan offensive term for a dark-skinned person
Russian хач, чу́рка
  • хач (xač)an offensive term for a dark-skinned person
  • чу́рка (čúrka)an offensive term for a dark-skinned person
  • чурба́н (čurbán)an offensive term for a dark-skinned person
  • чучме́к (čučmék)an offensive term for a dark-skinned person
  • чернома́зый (černomázyj)an offensive term for a dark-skinned person
  • черножо́пый (černožópyj)an offensive term for a dark-skinned person
Swedish blatte, babbe
  • blattean offensive term for a dark-skinned person
  • babbean offensive term for a dark-skinned person

Rhymes & wordplay

Rhymes with wog

All rhymes →

Anagrams

Cite this entry
APA

wog. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wog

MLA

“wog.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wog. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “wog,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/wog.

Source: wog on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.