woo-woo

adjective

ˈwü-ˌwü 

: dubiously or outlandishly mystical, supernatural, or unscientific

And she has written a book … in which she dismisses what she calls "woo-woo spirituality" in favor of some straight talk on living with loss …

—Linda Richman

Energy beams from the eyes certainly sounds like woo-woo stuff …

—Steve Blow

woo-woo noun

One man's woo-woo, of course, is another's deeply held belief system.

—Julia Moskin

Examples of woo-woo in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Langley’s closest sonic predecessor, Kacey Musgraves, has long searched for transcendence—though in more woo-woo terms than Langley does, and with (on Musgraves’s lusty new album) the sort of neediness that often gets written off as cringe. — Spencer Kornhaber, The Atlantic, 23 July 2026

Most of those are more in the woo-woo realm, à la the Protein Circle. — Nick H. Penniman, Rolling Stone, 15 July 2026

Somewhere in the middle of that woo-woo spectrum lies the work of Carlos Castaneda. — Los Angeles Times, 23 June 2026

The Enneagram is a personality system, with a soupçon of woo-woo, that divides people into nine types. — Jennifer Noyes, Air Mail, 20 June 2026

Word History

Etymology

probably from the interjection woo-woo as a conventional representation of an eerie or ghostly sound

First Known Use

1992, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for woo-woo

• accrue
• ado
• ainu
• aircrew
• airscrew
• anew
• askew
• baboo
• babu
• bamboo
• beaucoup
• bijou