Lucky, fortunate, or "phew, that was close".
Add your own interpretation of "heng".
Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
See all Regional & Other slang on Slangora.
Browse all slang words starting with H.
(Manglish, Singlish) !, thank goodness.
(Singapore, Singlish, colloquial, ) unlucky, unfortunate.
(Singapore, Malaysia, informal) A traditional, festive expression used to wish oneself prosperity.
Exclamation of surprise, amazement, admiration or general impressed reaction, common across Singaporean, Malaysian and Hong Kong English. Used standalone or as a lead-in: "Wah, so expensive!" "Wah, the view damn nice." Lengthened ("waaah") for stronger emphasis. Often paired with "lah", "leh" or "lao" to colour the reaction — "wah lah eh", "wah lao", "wah seh". Has roots in Hokkien and Cantonese spoken exclamations and is one of the first Singlish markers visiting English speakers pick up.
Lucky, fortunate, or "phew, that was close". From Hokkien 幸 (hēng / hēng-ūn — luck, good fortune). Used both as an exclamation on its own ("Heng!" — "thank goodness!") and as an adjective ("damn heng leh", "really heng today"). The most common framing is "wah heng" — "wow, lucky!" — when the speaker has narrowly escaped something bad. The opposite of "suay" (unlucky). One of the warmest, most reflexively-used words in Singapore and Malaysian English, especially after a near miss or unexpected good news.
Wah heng leh, the last bus was just leaving when I ran out.
No comments yet — say something.