• Which

    Pronunciation

    Alternative forms

    Origin

    From Old English hwilc, from Proto-Germanic *hwilīkaz, derived from *hwaz. Cognates include German welcher, Dutch welk and Old Norse hvílíkr.

    Full definition of which

    Determiner

    1. What, of those mentioned or implied (used interrogatively).
      • 2013-08-17, Schumpeter, In praise of laziness, Which of these banes of modern business life is worse remains open to debate. But what is clear is that office workers are on a treadmill of pointless activity. Managers allow meetings to drag on for hours. Workers generate e-mails because it requires little effort and no thought. An entire management industry exists to spin the treadmill ever faster.
    2. Which song made the charts?
    3. (interrogative) What one or ones (of those mentioned or implied).
      which is bigger?;  which is which?
    4. (relative) The one or ones that.
      show me which one is bigger;  they couldn't decide which song to play
    5. (relative) The one or ones mentioned.
      • 2013, Katrina G. Claw, Rapid Evolution in Eggs and Sperm, Many genes with reproductive roles also have antibacterial and immune functions, which indicate that the threat of microbial attack on the sperm or egg may be a major influence on rapid evolution during reproduction.
    6. For several seconds he sat in silence, during which time the tea and sandwiches arrived.
      I'm thinking of getting a new car, in which case I'd get a red one.
    7. (now dialectal) Used of people (now generally who, whom or that).
      • 1526, William Tyndale, trans. Bible, Acts IX:The men which acompanyed him on his waye stode amased, for they herde a voyce, butt sawe no man.

    Pronoun

    which

    1. (relative) Who; whom; what (of those mentioned or implied).
      • 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 2, Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke....A silver snaffle on a heavy leather watch guard which connected the pockets of his corduroy waistcoat, together with a huge gold stirrup in his Ascot tie, sufficiently proclaimed his tastes.
      • 2013-07-20, Welcome to the plastisphere, Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily. Any organism that could unlock and use that energy would do well in the Anthropocene. Terrestrial bacteria and fungi which can manage this trick are already familiar to experts in the field.
    2. He walked by a door with a sign, which read: PRIVATE OFFICE.   Their first song, which made the charts in 2004, is great.   We've met some problems, which are very difficult to handle.   He had to leave, which was very difficult.   We have to protect the environment in which we live.   No art can be properly understood apart from the culture of which it is a part.

    Usage notes

    (US usage) Some authorities insist, prescriptively, that relative which should be used only in non-restrictive contexts. For restrictive contexts (e.g., ''The song

    that made the charts in 2004 is better than the later ones), they prefer that. Actual usage does not support this "rule". Fowler, who proposed the rule, himself acknowledged that it was "not the practice of most or of the best writers". Even E.B. White, a notorious "which-hunter", wrote this: "the premature expiration of a pig is, I soon discovered, a departure which the community marks solemnly on its calendar." In modern UK usage, The song which made the charts in 2004 is better than the later ones'' is generally accepted without question.

    When "which" (or the other relative pronouns "who" and "that") is used as the subject of a relative clause, the verb agrees with the antecedent of the pronoun. Thus "The thing which is...", "The things which are...", etc.

    Derived terms

    Noun

    which

    (plural whiches)
    1. An occurrence of the word which.
      • 1959, William Van O'Connor, Modern prose, form and style (page 251)The ofs and the whiches have thrown our prose into a hundred-years' sleep.
      • 1989, Donald Ervin Knuth, Tracy Larrabee, Paul M. Roberts, Mathematical writing (page 90)Is it not true, TLL asked of Mary-Claire, that people invariably get their whiches and thats right when they speak?
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