who
pronounnoundeterminertop 100 in film dialogue
- United Kingdom//huː//
- United Kingdom//hʉw//
- United States//hu//
What person or people; which person or people; asks for the identity of someone; used in a direct or indirect question.
pronoun
- 1
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)
I don't know who it is. (indirect question)
Who says they care? —They themselves do.
Who is coming to your party? Who are your favourite singers?
- 2
Introduces a relative clause having a human antecedent. With antecedent as subject.
That's the man who works at the newsagent. (defining)
My sister, who works in the accounts department, just got promoted to manager. (non-defining)
Despite personal schisms and differences in spiritual experience, there is a very coherent theology of Snape shared between the wives. To examine this manifestation of religious fandom, I will first discuss the canon scepticism and anti-Rowling sentiment that helps to contextualise the wider belief in Snape as a character who extends beyond book and film.
Yeah, so we just want to stand with our immigrant community, uh we note that our neighbors are being killed by ICE and there's no accountability, there's no justice; so we just want to stand with them here and note that they're not alone and that there's people who support them.
- 3
Introduces a relative clause having a human antecedent. With antecedent as object: whom.
That's the man who I saw earlier.
My brother, who you met the other day, is coming to stay for the weekend.
- 4
Whoever, he who, they who.
Who insults my mother insults me.
Give it to who deserves it.
Who steals my purse steals trash.
- 5
informalAlso used with names of collective nouns that are groups of people, especially singularly-named musical groups or sports teams.
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.
noun
- 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.
determiner
- 1
whose
Who phone just rang?
Forms
- plural
- whos
who · What person or people; which person or people; asks for the identity of someone; used in a direct or indirect question.
Who · The television show Doctor Who.whoa · Stop (especially when commanding a horse or imitative…whoever · Who ever: an emphatic form of who.