who

who^¹

/huː/ UK, Wales
/hʉw/ British, Southern, Standard
/hu/ US
/hu/ Canada
/hʉː/ Australia, New Zealand
/hʉ/ Northern Ireland, Scotland
/h(w)uː/ Early Modern
/h(w)ɔː/ Early Modern
/hwɒ/ Early Modern

Sounds like Hu · Rhymes with -uː

Where it comes from

From Middle English who, hwo, huo, wha, hwoa, hwa, from Old English hwā (dative hwām, genitive hwæs), from Proto-West Germanic *hwaʀ, from Proto-Germanic *hwaz, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷos, *kʷís.

The sound change /hw/ > /h/ (without a corresponding change in spelling) was due to wh-cluster reduction after an irregular change of /ɑː/ to /oː/ in Middle English (instead of the expected /ɔː/) and further to /uː/ regularly in Early Modern English. A similar change occurred in two. Compare how, which underwent wh-reduction earlier (in Old English), and thus is spelt with h.

Compare Scots wha, West Frisian wa, Dutch wie, Low German we, German wer, Swedish vem, Danish hvem, Norwegian Bokmål hvem, Norwegian Nynorsk kven, Icelandic hver.

pronoun whom · who · whose

interrogative, nominative, plural, singular What person or people; which person or people; asks for the identity of someone; used in a direct or indirect question. You're getting married‽ Who to? (direct question)
nominative, plural, relative, singular With antecedent as subject. That's the man who works at the newsagent. (defining)
nominative, plural, relative, singular With antecedent as object: whom. That's the man who I saw earlier.
nominative, plural, singular Whoever, he who, they who. Who dares wins.
informal, nominative, plural, singular Also used with names of collective nouns that are groups of people, especially singularly-named musical groups or sports teams. Who are the Miami Heat?

noun whos

A person under discussion; a question of which person. 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.

determiner

dialectal, interrogative whose Who phone just rang?

WHO^²

/ˈdʌbəljuː ˈeɪt͡ʃ ˈəʊ/

proper noun WHO · the WHO · W.H.O. · W. H. O.

abbreviation, initialism Initialism of World Health Organization.World Health Organization Trump initiated the year-long withdrawal process from the WHO in 2020 but six months later his successor, President Joe Biden, reversed the decision.

Who^³

pronoun

honorific Honorific alternative letter-case form of who, sometimes used when referring to God or another important figure who is understood from context.who I make my pilgrimage to Thee O God, Who art the pilgrim's hope! Praised be the Virgin, sweet and pure! Be gracious to the pilgrimage.

proper noun

slang The television show Doctor Who. After three event episodes in a row (the finale, Christmas special and season opener), “Tooth and Claw” is the first “regular” episode of Who we've had in a while.

AI In plain words

who¹