Crikey

How do people say it?

• Crikey, is that the time?Listen
• Crikey, that spider is huge!Listen

What should I know?

Who can say it

Harmless but a little dated. Cambridge labels it old-fashioned, so a visitor who says it seriously may sound like someone doing an impression.

Where you hear it

Australia

Elsewhere you might say

UK: blimey, crumbs. US: wow, whoa, gosh.

Crikey does one job: it shows surprise, usually mild or comic. It can be alarm, as in crikey, that's a big snake, or pleasure, as in crikey, you cooked all this?

It stands alone or begins a sentence. It is not a noun or a verb, so it does not change, and you will not see it with a plural or an ending.

Cambridge labels crikey old-fashioned. That is why a newcomer should hold back: a quick crikey from a stranger can sound like a stage Australian. Wow or gosh is the plain choice.

Reading the bill: crikey, it's two hundred dollars. Looking at the sky: crikey, those clouds are dark. At a surprise party: crikey, you got me!

A grandfather telling a story: and I thought, crikey, we're in trouble. In each, the word sits at the start, and the rest of the sentence says why the speaker is surprised.

Britain has close relatives in blimey and crumbs, and the United States says wow, whoa or gosh. Crikey is known in Britain too, where it can also sound old-fashioned.

If you want to sound natural in Australia today, practise no way, really and wow. Keep crikey for a joke, or for the moment you hear someone else say it first.

What else can I say?

• Stoked Very pleased and excited about something.
• Bogan A person, often working-class, seen by others as unrefined or lacking style. Often an insult, sometimes a joke.

More examples

• At a restaurant: Crikey, the bill came to three hundred dollars.Listen