whom
/hum/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.85 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
pron
Also used with names of collective nouns that are groups of people, especially singularly-named musical groups or sports teams.
Formal; Informal
Example Sentences
- "Whom did you ask?"
- "“Oh?” she said. “So you have decided to revise my guest list for me? You have the nerve, the – the –” I saw she needed helping out. “Audacity,” I said, throwing her the line. “The audacity to dictate to me who I shall have in my house.” It should have been “whom”, but I let it go. “You have the –” “Crust.” “– the immortal rind,” she amended, and I had to admit it was stronger, “to tell me whom” – she got it right that time – “I may entertain at Brinkley Court and who” – wrong again – “I may not.”"
- "To whom are you referring?"
- "With whom were you talking?"
- "The stories did not seem to me to touch life. They were plainly intended to have a bracing moral effect, and perhaps had this result for the people at whom they were aimed."
- "He read the letter aloud. Sophia listened with the studied air of one for whom, even in these days, a title possessed some surreptitious allurement."
Etymology
From Middle English whom, wham, from Old English hwām, hwǣm, from Proto-Germanic *hwammai, dative case of *hwaz (“who, what”). Cognate with Scots wham (“whom”), German wem (“whom, to whom”), Danish hvem (“who, whom”), Swedish vem (“who, whom”).
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *kʷ-, whom, hwām, *hwammai
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /hum/
- British English: /huːm/
Usage
Inflected Forms
of who (objective, plural)
whome (alternative, obsolete)