what the hell

Etymology
Shortened from earlier.

Phrase

 * 1)  An intensive form of what.
 * : Why not? Who cares?
 * It’s expensive, but what the hell, you only live once.
 * Surprisingly, dieters ate more ice cream after eating a large milkshake than after eating a small one. Dr. Polivy calls this the “What the hell” effect, which she describes as thinking “What the hell, my diet’s already broken, so I might as well eat everything in sight.”
 * Surprisingly, dieters ate more ice cream after eating a large milkshake than after eating a small one. Dr. Polivy calls this the “What the hell” effect, which she describes as thinking “What the hell, my diet’s already broken, so I might as well eat everything in sight.”

Usage notes

 * Thought to be more vulgar in the US and Philippines whilst less vulgar in the UK, Ireland, Canada, New Zealand and Australia.
 * Although most intensive additions to question words (e.g. the hell, the fuck, on earth, etc.) are semantically interchangeable, most of them cannot replace what the hell in indicating acceptance, indulgence, or insouciance (sense 2 above). For example, what the fuck cannot usually have this meaning (but see sense 2 of ). However, what the heck can.

Related terms

 * See the hell

Translations

 * Arabic: مَاذَا بِحَقّ اَلسَّمَاء
 * Bulgarian: какво по дяволите
 * Chinese:
 * Cantonese:
 * Mandarin: 什麼鬼
 * Danish: hvad helvede
 * Dutch: wat voor de donder?, wat donder?
 * Esperanto: kio diable
 * Finnish: mitä helvettiä?, mitä hittoa?
 * French:
 * Galician: que carallo?, que demos?
 * German: was zum Teufel?, was zur Hölle
 * Greek: τι διάολο;, τι στο διάολο;, τι στο καλό;
 * Hebrew: מָה לַעֲזָאזֵל
 * Hungarian: mi a fene, mi az ördög, mi az isten
 * Icelandic: hvað í fjandanum?, hvað í helvítinu?
 * Italian: che diavolo? cosa diavolo?
 * Japanese: 一体なんだ, 一体全体なんだ, なんだよ、これ
 * Korean: 알게 뭐-야?
 * Low German:
 * German Low German: wat to'n Düvel?
 * Navajo: shash líyáadi
 * Norwegian:
 * Bokmål: hva i helvete?, hva faen?
 * Nynorsk: kva i helvete?, kva i svarte?, kva faen?
 * Persian: چه مرگته؟, چه مرضته؟
 * Portuguese: que diabos?
 * Romanian: ce dracu, ce naiba
 * Russian: что за чёрт?, како́го чёрта?, что за чертовщи́на?, что за фигня́?, како́го хре́на?, , что за хуйня́?
 * Serbo-Croatian:
 * Roman: koji vrag?, koji kurac?
 * Spanish: qué diablos
 * Swedish: vad i helvete, vad tusan?, vad fan,
 * Thai:
 * Ukrainian: ,
 * Vietnamese:, cái quái gì


 * Danish: hvad fanden
 * Dutch: lekker boeiend, ach schijt
 * Finnish: mitä hittoa
 * French:
 * Galician: que carallo!
 * German: was soll's, scheiß drauf
 * Hungarian: egye fene
 * Icelandic: skítt með það
 * Italian: che diavolo, perche no
 * Norwegian: faen heller, søren heller
 * Portuguese: que se dane,
 * Russian: чем чёрт не шу́тит?,, чёрт с ним
 * Swedish: