what
Meanings
- Which, especially which of an open-ended set of possibilities.
- Which.
- Any ... that; all ... that; whatever.
- Emphasises that something is noteworthy or remarkable in quality or degree, in either a good or bad way; may be used in combination with certain other determiners, especially 'a', less often 'some'.
- Used to form exclamations indicating that something is remarkable, in either a good or bad way.
- Which thing, event, circumstance, etc.: used in asking for the specification of an identity, quantity, quality, etc.
- That which; those that; the thing(s) that.
- Anything that; all that; whatever.
- That; which; who.
- In what way; to what extent.
- Used before a prepositional phrase to emphasise that something is taken into consideration as a cause or reason; usually used in combination with 'with' (see what with), and much less commonly with other prepositions.
- An expression of surprise or disbelief.
- What do you want? An abrupt, usually unfriendly enquiry as to what a person desires.
- Clipping of what do you say?, used as a type of tag question to emphasise a statement and invite agreement, often rhetorically.
- What did you say? I beg your pardon? This usage is often considered impolite, with the more polite "Pardon?" or "Excuse me?" preferred.
- Indicating a guess or approximation, or a pause to try to recall information.
- Something; thing; stuff.
- The identity of a thing, as an answer to a question of what.
- Something that is addressed by what, as opposed to a person, addressed by who.
- Emphasizes the truth of an assertion made to contradict an evidently false assumption held by the listener.
- Used to invite agreement or acknowledgment when something is assumed to be straightforward or already obvious to begin with; similar in function to “right?” and “as you know”.
- Used after a direct assertion to reinforce a disagreeing opinion.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kʷ- Proto-Indo-European *kʷís Proto-Germanic *hwat Proto-West Germanic *hwat Old English hwæt Middle English what English what From Middle English what, from Old English hwæt (“what”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwat, from Proto-Germanic *hwat (“what”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷód (“what”), neuter form of *kʷós (“who”). Cognate with Scots what, whit (“what”), North Frisian wat (“what”), Saterland Frisian wat (“what”), West Frisian wat (“what”), Dutch wat (“what”), Low German wat (“what”), German was (“what”), Danish hvad (“what”), Norwegian Bokmål hva (“what”), Swedish vad (“what”), Norwegian Nynorsk kva (“what”), Icelandic hvað (“what”), Latin quod (“what, which”). Its use as a particle of contradiction or objection in colloquial Singaporean English is analogous to Cantonese 喎 /㖞 (wo³, etymology 2, sense 3). It is possible that this was historically reinforced by the dated use of what as a sentence-final question tag in British English.