Who vs. What
By Muazma Batool — Updated on November 25, 2022
Difference Between Who and What
Who vs. What Definitions
◉Who
(interrogative) What person or people; which person or people; asks for the identity of someone; used in a direct or indirect question.
Who is that? (direct question)
I don't know who it is. (indirect question)
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May 03, 2023
◉What
Which one or ones of several or many
What college are you attending? You should know what musical that song is from.
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May 03, 2023
◉Who
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)
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May 03, 2023
◉What
Used to express surprise, incredulity, or other strong and sudden excitement.
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May 03, 2023
◉Who
One; any; one.
As who should say, it were a very dangerous matter if a man in any point should be found wiser than his forefathers were.
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May 03, 2023
◉What
(interrogative) Which, especially which of an open-ended set of possibilities.
What colour are you going to use?
What time is it?
What kind of car is that?
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May 03, 2023
◉Who
a United Nations agency to coordinate international health activities and to help governments improve health services
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May 03, 2023
◉What
(relative) Which; the ... that.
I know what colour I am going to use.
That depends on what answer is received.
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May 03, 2023
◉What
(relative) Any ... that; all ... that; whatever.
He seems to have lost what sense he had.
What money I earn is soon spent.
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May 03, 2023
◉What
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'.
This shows what beauty there is in nature.
You know what nonsense she talks.
I found out what a liar he is.
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May 03, 2023
◉What
Used to form exclamations.
What nonsense!
Wow! What a speech.
What some lovely weather we've been having!
What beautiful children you have.
With what passion she sings!
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May 03, 2023
◉What
(interrogative) Which thing, event, circumstance, etc.: used in asking for the specification of an identity, quantity, quality, etc.
What is your name?
Ask them what they want.
Muazma Batool
May 03, 2023
◉What
(fused relative) That which; those that; the thing(s) that.
He knows what he wants.
What is amazing is his boundless energy.
And, what's even worse, I have to work on Sunday too.
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May 03, 2023
◉What
(fused relative) Anything that; all that; whatever.
I will do what I can to help you.
What is mine is yours.
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May 03, 2023
◉What
(interrogative) In what way; to what extent.
What does it matter?
What do you care?
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May 03, 2023
◉What
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.
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May 03, 2023
◉What
What do you want? An abrupt, usually unfriendly enquiry as to what a person desires.
What? I'm busy.
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May 03, 2023
◉What
clipping of what do you say? Used as a type of tag question to emphasise a statement and invite agreement, often rhetorically.
It’s a nice day, what?
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May 03, 2023
◉What
What did you say? I beg your pardon?
— Could I have some of those aarrrrrr mmmm ...
— What?
— What?
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May 03, 2023
◉What
Indicating a guess or approximation, or a pause to try to recall information.
I must have been, what, about five years old.
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May 03, 2023
◉What
(countable) The identity of a thing, as an answer to a question of what.
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May 03, 2023
◉What
(countable) Something that is addressed by what, as opposed to a person, addressed by who.
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May 03, 2023
◉What
As an interrogative pronoun, used in asking questions regarding either persons or things; as, what is this? what did you say? what poem is this? what child is lost?
What see'st thou in the ground?
What is man, that thou art mindful of him?
What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!
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May 03, 2023
◉What
As an exclamatory word: - (a) Used absolutely or independently; - often with a question following.
What, could ye not watch with me one hour?
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May 03, 2023
◉What
Used adjectively, meaning how remarkable, or how great; as, what folly! what eloquence! what courage!
What a piece of work is man!
O what a riddle of absurdity!
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May 03, 2023
◉What
Sometimes prefixed to adjectives in an adverbial sense, as nearly equivalent to how; as, what happy boys!
What partial judges are our love and hate!
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May 03, 2023
◉What
Used substantively with the antecedent suppressed, equivalent to that which, or those [persons] who, or those [things] which; - called a compound relative.
With joy beyond what victory bestows.
I'm thinking Captain Lawton will count the noses of what are left before they see their whaleboats.
What followed was in perfect harmony with this beginning.
I know well . . . how little you will be disposed to criticise what comes to you from me.
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May 03, 2023
◉What
Whatever; whatsoever; what thing soever; - used indefinitely.
Whether it were the shortness of his foresight, the strength of his will, . . . or what it was.
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May 03, 2023
◉What
Used adjectively, equivalent to the . . . which; the sort or kind of . . . which; rarely, the . . . on, or at, which.
See what natures accompany what colors.
To restrain what power either the devil or any earthly enemy hath to work us woe.
We know what master laid thy keel,What workmen wrought thy ribs of steel.
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May 03, 2023
◉What
Used adverbially, in part; partly; somewhat; - with a following preposition, especially, with, and commonly with repetition.
What for lust [pleasure] and what for lore.
Thus, what with the war, what with the sweat, what with the gallows, and what with poverty, I am custom shrunk.
The year before he had so used the matter that what by force, what by policy, he had taken from the Christians above thirty small castles.
What time the morn mysterious visions brings.
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May 03, 2023
◉What
Used adverbially in a sense corresponding to the adjectival use; as, he picked what good fruit he saw.
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May 03, 2023
◉What
Why? For what purpose? On what account?
What should I tell the answer of the knight.
But what do I stand reckoning upon advantages and gains lost by the misrule and turbulency of the prelates? What do I pick up so thriftily their scatterings and diminishings of the meaner subject?
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May 03, 2023
◉What
Something; thing; stuff.
And gave him for to feed,Such homely what as serves the simple lown.
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May 03, 2023
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