• Who

    Pronunciation

    • UK IPA: /huː/
    • US IPA: /hu/
    • Rhymes: -uː

    Origin

    From Old English hwā (dative hwām, genitive hwæs), from Proto-Germanic *hwaz, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷos, *kʷis. Compare West Frisian wa, Dutch wie, German wer.

    Full definition of who

    Pronoun

    who

    (singular or plural, nominative casepossessive - whoseobjective case - whom)
    (Note that who is usually used instead of whom, especially in informal contexts.)
    1. (interrogative pronoun) What person or people; which person or people (used in a direct or indirect question).Who is that? (direct question)I don't know who it is. (indirect question)
    2. (relative pronoun) The person or people that.It was a nice man who helped us.

    Usage notes

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

    Noun

    who

    (plural whos)
    1. A person under discussion; a question of which person.
      • 2008, March 21, The New York Times, Movie Guide and Film Series, A wham-bam caper flick, efficiently directed by Roger Donaldson, that fancifully revisits the mysterious whos and speculative hows of a 1971 London bank heist.

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