Refine this word faster
How
Definitions
- 1 To what degree or extent. interrogative, not-comparable
"How often do you practice?"
- 2 In what manner interrogative, not-comparable
"Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too.[…]But as a foundation for analysis it is highly subjective: it rests on difficult decisions about what counts as a territory, what counts as output and how to value it. Indeed, economists are still tweaking it."
- 3 In what manner:; By what means. interrogative, not-comparable
"How do you solve this puzzle?"
- 4 In what manner:; With overtones of why, for what reason. interrogative, not-comparable
"How should I know whether he likes raisins or not? Ask him!"
- 5 In what manner:; In what form, shape, measure, quantity, etc. interrogative, not-comparable
"How do you sell your brandy? We sell it by the gallon, and not by the bottle."
Show 8 more definitions
- 6 In what manner:; With what meaning or effect. interrogative, not-comparable
"How the stock market interprets events has real consequences."
- 7 In what manner:; By what title or what name. interrogative, not-comparable
""How art thou called? Thy name make known; Thy father's name and family,—tell me thy father's and thine own.""
- 8 In what manner:; At what price, for what amount (of money). interrogative, not-comparable
"Shal. How a score of ewes now? Sil. Thereafter as they be: a score of good ewes may be worth ten pounds."
- 9 In what state or condition. interrogative, not-comparable
"How are you?"
- 10 In the manner in which. not-comparable
"I said it exactly how he said it."
- 11 In any manner in which; in whatever way; however. not-comparable
"People should be free to live how they want."
- 12 In which. nonstandard, not-comparable, relative
"The way how you walk is funny."
- 13 Used as a modifier to indicate surprise, delight, or other strong feelings in an exclamation. not-comparable
"How very interesting!"
- 1 That, the fact that. informal
"She told me how her father was a doctor."
- 1 What?, pardon? US, dialectal
- 2 A greeting, used in representations of Native American speech.
- 1 A surname. countable, uncountable
- 2 A town in Oconto County, Wisconsin, United States, named after Calvin F. How Jr. countable, uncountable
- 3 A hamlet in Hayton parish, City of Carlisle district, Cumbria, England (OS grid ref NY5056). countable, uncountable
- 1 The means by which something is accomplished.
"I am not interested in the why, but in the how."
- 2 An artificial barrow or tumulus; in later folklore, associated with fairies. dialectal
"Fianlly, as regards the places in which these rites and mysteries may have been held, certain writers believe them to have been the "Fairy Hills" or "howes" in various parts of Scotland."
- 3 radiotelephony clear-code word for the letter H.
- 4 In northern England, a low hill. dialectal
Etymology
From Middle English how, hou, hu, hwu, from Old English hū, from Proto-West Germanic *hwō, from Proto-Germanic *hwō (“through what, how”), from the same root as hwæt (“who, what”). /hw/ > /h/ due to wh-cluster reduction in Old English; compare who, which underwent this change later, and thus is spelt wh (Middle English spelling of /hw/) but pronounced /h/ (it previously had a different vowel, hence avoided the spelling and sound change in Old English). Vowel change per Great Vowel Shift. Akin to Scots hoo, foo (“how”), North Frisian ho, hü, hur (“how”), Saterland Frisian wo (“how”), West Frisian hoe (“how”), Dutch hoe (“how”), Low German ho, wo, wu (“how”), German wie (“how”), Swedish hur (“how”). See who and compare why.
From Middle English how, hou, hu, hwu, from Old English hū, from Proto-West Germanic *hwō, from Proto-Germanic *hwō (“through what, how”), from the same root as hwæt (“who, what”). /hw/ > /h/ due to wh-cluster reduction in Old English; compare who, which underwent this change later, and thus is spelt wh (Middle English spelling of /hw/) but pronounced /h/ (it previously had a different vowel, hence avoided the spelling and sound change in Old English). Vowel change per Great Vowel Shift. Akin to Scots hoo, foo (“how”), North Frisian ho, hü, hur (“how”), Saterland Frisian wo (“how”), West Frisian hoe (“how”), Dutch hoe (“how”), Low German ho, wo, wu (“how”), German wie (“how”), Swedish hur (“how”). See who and compare why.
From Middle English how, hou, hu, hwu, from Old English hū, from Proto-West Germanic *hwō, from Proto-Germanic *hwō (“through what, how”), from the same root as hwæt (“who, what”). /hw/ > /h/ due to wh-cluster reduction in Old English; compare who, which underwent this change later, and thus is spelt wh (Middle English spelling of /hw/) but pronounced /h/ (it previously had a different vowel, hence avoided the spelling and sound change in Old English). Vowel change per Great Vowel Shift. Akin to Scots hoo, foo (“how”), North Frisian ho, hü, hur (“how”), Saterland Frisian wo (“how”), West Frisian hoe (“how”), Dutch hoe (“how”), Low German ho, wo, wu (“how”), German wie (“how”), Swedish hur (“how”). See who and compare why.
From Middle English how, hou, hu, hwu, from Old English hū, from Proto-West Germanic *hwō, from Proto-Germanic *hwō (“through what, how”), from the same root as hwæt (“who, what”). /hw/ > /h/ due to wh-cluster reduction in Old English; compare who, which underwent this change later, and thus is spelt wh (Middle English spelling of /hw/) but pronounced /h/ (it previously had a different vowel, hence avoided the spelling and sound change in Old English). Vowel change per Great Vowel Shift. Akin to Scots hoo, foo (“how”), North Frisian ho, hü, hur (“how”), Saterland Frisian wo (“how”), West Frisian hoe (“how”), Dutch hoe (“how”), Low German ho, wo, wu (“how”), German wie (“how”), Swedish hur (“how”). See who and compare why.
From Middle English howe, hough, hogh, partly from Old English hōh (“promontory”), and partly from Old Norse haugr (“a how, mound”). Compare Old French höe (“hillock, hill”), from the same Germanic source.
From a Siouan language; compare Lakota háu. Alternatively from Wyandot haau.
See also for "how"
Next best steps
Mini challenge
Want a quick game? Try Word Finder.