Speakur

Word Pronunciation & Dictionary

who

/hu/

Word Rarity Common

Frequency: Zipf frequency 6.34 in modern English

Syllables
who
IPA
/hu/
9
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars

Meaning

pron

What person or people; which person or people; asks for the identity of someone; used in a direct or indirect question.

pron

Introduces a relative clause having a human antecedent.

pron

Introduces a relative clause having a human antecedent.

pron

Whoever, he who, they who.

pron

Also used with names of collective nouns that are groups of people, especially singularly-named musical groups or sports teams.

Informal

noun

A person under discussion; a question of which person.

det

whose

name

Initialism of World Health Organization.

Example Sentences

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.

Origin

Word Breakdown

  • Root: *kʷ-, who, hwā, *hwaʀ, *hwaz, *kʷos

Regional Pronunciation

  • American English: /hu/
  • British English: /huː/

Usage

Inflected Forms

whom (objective) whose (possessive) whos (plural) the WHO (canonical) W.H.O. (alternative) W. H. O. (alternative)

Derived Forms

NuWho Superwholock Wholock Whoniverse Whovian

Phrases

abandon hope, all ye who enter here all hope abandon ye who enter here all things come to those who wait anybody who is anybody anybody who is anyone anyone who is anybody anyone who is anyone as who should say

Frequently Paired Words

WHA Whom Whose

Synonyms

world health organization w.h.o.

Homonyms

Hu

Rhymes With

to you do to-do new two too through few true due knew

Questions

How do you pronounce who?
The recorded pronunciation is /hu/.
What does who mean?
What person or people; which person or people; asks for the identity of someone; used in a direct or indirect question.
Where does who come from?
It is traced to Middle English.

How to pronounce who

  1. Open the pronunciation page — Open the Speakur entry for “who”.
  2. Read the phonetic spelling — Read the IPA spelling (/hu/) so you know which sounds to aim for.
  3. Play the audio — Click Play to hear reference audio for “who”.
  4. Repeat and practice — Say “who” aloud, matching stress and vowels until it feels natural.