What (who) is helluva - definition

AMERICAN SLANG MEANING "VERY" OR "A LOT"

Hella (word); Helluva; Hellabyte

helluva

Something Mr. T says.
That car is helluva fast.

helluva

Some people say a helluva or one helluva to emphasize that something is very good, very bad, or very big. (INFORMAL)

It taught me a helluva lot about myself...

The man did one helluva job getting it all together.

= a hell of a, one hell of a

ADJ: a/one ADJ n [emphasis]

helluva

¦ contraction informal a hell of a (representing a pronunciation).

Wikipedia

Hella

Hella is an American slang term that originated in the San Francisco East Bay Area. It is used as an intensifying adverb such as in "hella bad" or "hella good" and was eventually added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2002. It is possibly a contraction of the phrase "hell of a" or "hell of a lot [of]", in turn reduced to "hell of", though some scholars doubt this etymology since its grammatical usage does not align with those phrases. It often appears in place of the words "really", "a lot", "totally", "very", and in some cases, "yes". Whereas hell of a is generally used with a noun, according to linguist Pamela Munro, hella is primarily used to modify an adjective such as "good".

According to lexicographer Allan A. Metcalf, the word is a marker of northern California dialect. According to Colleen Cotter, "Southern Californians know the term ... but rarely use it." Sometimes the term grippa is used to mock "NorCal" dialect, with the actual meaning being the opposite of hella.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hella

Pronunciation examples for helluva

1. Ain't that a helluva note?

Badlands

2. But it's one helluva lot better than the cardboard box.

USC Social Change Media Institute _ Peter Samuelson _ Talks at Google

3. A helluva lot of women were mean to me.

So You've Been Publicly Shamed _ Jon Ronson _ Talks at Google

4. I aim to end every talk with a helluva a lot of women

So You've Been Publicly Shamed _ Jon Ronson _ Talks at Google

Examples of use of helluva

1. "Those kids paid a helluva penalty, but they got the good people of Richmond awakened.

2. "I do not want her to quit." "I love her because she‘s a helluva fighter.

3. He had to steel himself to do that, which takes a helluva lot of nerve and guts.

4. Over the years, "there was a helluva lot of sloppiness in this reporting" about lobbying fees, Breuer said.

5. "We‘ve always known that it was a big challenge against an incumbent, and I think we ran a helluva race," Feder said in a telephone interview last night.