English Meaning & Definitions
An exclamation used to express surprise, wonder, or to draw attention to something remarkable or unexpected.
- “I just found a twenty-dollar bill in my old winter coat—how about that?”
- “Our team actually won the championship after being down by ten points; how about that!”
English Synonyms & Near Equivalents
English Antonyms & Opposites
Comprehensive Thesaurus Breakdown
Compare formal, informal, literary synonyms and register nuances for “how about that”.
The phrase originated in 19th-century colloquial English as a rhetorical question used to solicit agreement or express surprise. It functions as a fixed idiomatic expression derived from the combination of the interrogative 'how' (in what way/to what extent) and the demonstrative 'that', evolving from a literal inquiry into an exclamation of astonishment or a prompt for a reaction.
Imagine a magician finishing a trick and pointing to the result while asking 'How about that?' to demand your awe.
Frequently Asked Questions About “how about that”
1. What is the meaning of “how about that” in English?
In English, how about that (idiom) is defined as: “An exclamation used to express surprise, wonder, or to draw attention to something remarkable or unexpected.”.
2. How do you use “how about that” in a sentence?
“I just found a twenty-dollar bill in my old winter coat—how about that?”
3. What are English synonyms of “how about that”?
4. What is the etymology and word origin of “how about that”?
The phrase originated in 19th-century colloquial English as a rhetorical question used to solicit agreement or express surprise. It functions as a fixed idiomatic expression derived from the combination of the interrogative 'how' (in what way/to what extent) and the demonstrative 'that', evolving from a literal inquiry into an exclamation of astonishment or a prompt for a reaction.
🇬🇧More English Words to English
View all English words →The base unit of time in the International System of Units (SI), equal to the duration of 9,192,631,770 periods of the radiation corresponding to the transition between the two hyperfine levels of the ground state of the caesium-133 atom.
A specific duration of time equal to one hour and forty-six minutes and twelve seconds.
The cardinal number equal to one thousand million (1,000,000,000), expressed in scientific notation as 10^9.
A specific duration of time equivalent to one hour and forty-six minutes.