or what

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Idioms and Phrases

A phrase following a statement that adds emphasis or suggests an option. For example, in Is this a good movie or what? the phrase asks for confirmation or agreement. However, it also may ask for an alternative, as in Is this book a biography or what? In the 1700s it generally asked for a choice among a series of options, and it still has this function, as in In what does John excel? in imagination? in reasoning powers? in mathematics? or what?

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Example Sentences

Examples have not been reviewed.

Currently, many individual local authorities have action plans, working alongside the NHS, but there is no national policy, or what Heather calls a UK "call to action", that recognises the deep-seated trauma people are facing every day.

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Indeed, between Friday evening and Sunday afternoon, I would have no idea what time it was or what would happen next.

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There were no further details about how Barber wound up more than 250 miles away or what he was doing in Sin City, but officials said he was “taken into custody without incident.”

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When I think about the problem of a general strike right now, what I think about is the ask unions would make, or what the general public wants.

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And so we’re not going to say when or where or what that exact moment is going to be, but we’re planning for it and talking about it, and we’re going to strike at the right time.

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Orwellian or whatever

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