or what

Idioms  

1. 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

"We knew that micropollutants can be incorporated into fatty molecules in the body, but we didn't know how this occurs or what happens next," Clardy said.

From Science Daily • Apr. 25, 2026

“Overall, it is really unclear fundamentally what this investment could solve, or what might be the eventual ROI for the U.S. taxpayer.”

From MarketWatch • Apr. 22, 2026

Three years ago, he did not know the Punjabi language or what happened during the India and Pakistan partition in 1947 after British rule ended.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 21, 2026

But there is nothing to tell you why one object is next to the other, how those objects fit into the overarching theme or what their significance is.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 17, 2026

Sure, at college some of the fellows walked around with pipes they never smoked and books they never read to impress girls or what have you.

From "Not Nothing" by Gayle Forman