Mild expletive

The answer

EGADS

5 letters. See every clue for this answer on the EGADS answer page.

Used 10 times across 6 distinct years; most recently in 2013; first recorded in 2000. It appears in 4 publications in the xd corpus. Frequency and last-seen figures come from the xd crossword corpus only.

Other answers for this clue

The same clue has also been answered these ways in the xd corpus. Answers inside this collection link to their own answer page.

• DRAT (77 uses in xd)
• EGAD (41 uses in xd)
• DARN (15 uses in xd)
• DANG (11 uses in xd)
• HECK (8 uses in xd)

Other clues for EGADS

Every other clue in this collection answered by EGADS, most used first.

• "Zounds!" - used 39 times, most recently in 2023
• "Yikes!" - used 29 times, most recently in 2025
• Quaint oath - used 22 times, most recently in 2025
• "My word!" - used 14 times, most recently in 2025
• Mild oaths - used 12 times, most recently in 2010
• "By Jove!" - used 11 times, most recently in 2024
• "Good grief!" - used 11 times, most recently in 2025
• "Holy cow!" - used 11 times, most recently in 2018
• "Holy smokes!" - used 11 times, most recently in 2021
• "Crikey!" - used 10 times, most recently in 2026
• "Holy moly!" - used 10 times, most recently in 2015
• Mild oath - used 10 times, most recently in 2021
• "My stars!" - used 10 times, most recently in 2025
• Old oath - used 9 times, most recently in 2006
• "My goodness!" - used 8 times, most recently in 2025
• Old-time oath - used 8 times, most recently in 2025
• "Yipes!" - used 8 times, most recently in 2021
• "Great Caesar's ghost!" - used 7 times, most recently in 2023
• "Jeepers!" - used 7 times, most recently in 2026
• "Goodness gracious!" - used 6 times, most recently in 2013
• "Heavens to Betsy!" - used 6 times, most recently in 2020
• "Oh my goodness!" - used 6 times, most recently in 2015

Related clues

Clues in this collection of the same answer length that share a word with this clue, or match its answer pattern when no word is shared. Most used first.

• Mild cigar - CLARO, used 99 times
• Mild oaths - DRATS, used 35 times
• Mild Dutch cheese - GOUDA, used 20 times
• Mild cheese - GOUDA, used 11 times
• Mild smoke - CLARO, used 10 times
• ___ acid (mild antiseptic) - BORIC, used 8 times

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