hoo-ha

noun

ˈhü-ˌhä 

variants or less commonly hoo-hah

informal

: a state or condition of excitement, agitation, or disturbance : commotion, uproar

… she wore the jacket again … —wore it unapologetically knowing all the hoo-ha it had caused …

—Vanessa Friedman

"I remember one time there was a big hoo-hah about a rare bird."

—Lee Child

Synonyms

• ado
• alarums and excursions
• ballyhoo
• blather
• bluster
• bobbery
• bother
• bustle
• clatter
• clutter [chiefly dialect]
• coil
• commotion
• corroboree [Australian]
• disturbance
• do [chiefly dialect]
• foofaraw
• fun
• furor
• furore
• fuss
• helter-skelter
• hoopla
• hubble-bubble
• hubbub
• hullabaloo
• hurly
• hurly-burly
• hurricane
• hurry
• hurry-scurry
• hurry-skurry
• kerfuffle [chiefly British]
• moil
• pandemonium
• pother
• row
• ruckus
• ruction
• rumpus
• shindy
• splore [Scottish]
• squall
• stew
• stir
• storm
• to-do
• tumult
• turmoil
• uproar
• welter
• whirl
• williwaw
• zoo

Examples of hoo-ha in a Sentence

the media hoo-ha that inevitably occurs when a politician makes a gaffe, no matter how inconsequential

Recent Examples on the Web

But underneath that hoo-ha hysteria is their real question, the anxious quandary that seems to drive their anger and fear as society changes around them. —Anita Chabria, Los Angeles Times, 8 Aug. 2024

Word History

Etymology

probably from Yiddish hu-ha uproar, exclamation of surprise

First Known Use

1931, in the meaning defined above