whiskey tango foxtrot
- noun
- /ˈwɪski ˈtæŋɡoʊ ˈfɑːkstɑːt/
- Offensive
:
qué carajo
- I can't believe she said that! Whiskey tango foxtrot!
Examples
-
When I saw the bill for dinner, all I could think was whiskey tango foxtrot.
-
The plot twist at the end had the audience whispering 'whiskey tango foxtrot' to each other.
-
He muttered 'whiskey tango foxtrot' under his breath when he saw the mess in the kitchen.
-
Did you just hear him? Whiskey tango foxtrot!
-
He muttered 'whiskey tango foxtrot' under his breath when he saw the mess in the kitchen.
-
The plot twist at the end had the audience whispering 'whiskey tango foxtrot' to each other.
-
When I saw the bill for dinner, all I could think was 'whiskey tango foxtrot'.
Synonyms
26
9.9
A strong phrase people say when they are very surprised or shocked
A short informal way people use to show surprise, confusion, or disbelief
A funny informal way people write what online to show confusion
A word people say to show strong surprise
A short word people say to show surprise, anger, or annoyance
An old-fashioned word people say to show disbelief or annoyance
An old-fashioned word people say to show surprise
Surface Forms
Morphology
whiskey + tango + foxtrot
The literal meanings of 'whiskey', 'tango' and 'foxtrot' provide no semantic cue to an exclamation of disbelief; the phrase is a playful spelling-out of the initialism WTF using the NATO phonetic alphabet. A B1 learner who knows the constituent words but not this convention or the underlying initialism would not be able to infer the idiomatic meaning.
Etymology
Whiskey tango foxtrot comes from a system used to say letters out loud: the letters W, T and F are spoken as whiskey, tango, foxtrot. People use it as a funny, less rude way to say 'WTF', meaning 'surprise' or 'confusion'.