who

Meanings

1. 1
   pron

   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)

2. 2
   pron

   Introduces a relative clause having a human antecedent.

   That's the man who works at the newsagent. (defining)

3. 3
   pron

   Whoever, he who, they who.

   Who insults my mother insults me.

4. 4
   pron

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

   Who are the Miami Heat?

5. 5
   noun

   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.

6. 6
   det

   whose

   Who phone just rang?

7. 7
   name

   Initialism of World Health Organization.

   Trump initiated the year-long withdrawal process from the WHO in 2020 but six months later his successor, President Joe Biden, reversed the decision.

8. 8
   pron

   Honorific alternative letter-case form of who, sometimes used when referring to God or another important figure who is understood from context.

   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.

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, We…