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Who
Definitions
- 1 whose dialectal, interrogative
"Who phone just rang?"
- 1 Initialism of World Health Organization. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
"Trump initiated the year-long withdrawal process from the WHO in 2020 but six months later his successor, President Joe Biden, reversed the decision."
- 2 The television show Doctor Who. slang
"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."
- 1 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."
- 2 a United Nations agency to coordinate international health activities and to help governments improve health services wordnet
- 1 What person or people; which person or people; asks for the identity of someone; used in a direct or indirect question. interrogative, nominative, plural, singular
"You're getting married‽ Who to? (direct question)"
- 2 Honorific alternative letter-case form of who, sometimes used when referring to God or another important figure who is understood from context. alt-of, honorific
"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."
- 3 Introduces a relative clause having a human antecedent.; With antecedent as subject. nominative, plural, relative, singular
"That's the man who works at the newsagent. (defining)"
- 4 Introduces a relative clause having a human antecedent.; With antecedent as object: whom. nominative, plural, relative, singular
"That's the man who I saw earlier."
- 5 Whoever, he who, they who. nominative, plural, singular
"Who insults my mother insults me."
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- 6 Also used with names of collective nouns that are groups of people, especially singularly-named musical groups or sports teams. informal, nominative, plural, singular
"Who are the Miami Heat?"
Etymology
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.
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.
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.
See also for "who"
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