what

English Online Dictionary. What means what‎? What does what mean?

English

Etymology

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 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”).

Pronunciation

• (Canada, General American)
  • (with wine–whine merger) enPR: wŭt, IPA^(key): /wʌt/; (in General American sometimes also) IPA^(key): /wɑt/
    • (stressed, in accents with the wine–whine merger)
  • (without the wine–whine merger) enPR: hwŭt, IPA^(key): /ʍʌt/
    • (stressed, in accents without the wine–whine merger)
  • (unstressed) IPA^(key): (flapped) [wʌɾ], (glottalized) [wʌˀ]
    • (unstressed, flapped, whine–wine merged)
    • (unstressed, glottalized, whine–wine merged)
• (UK, New Zealand, NYC)
  • (with wine–whine merger) enPR: wŏt, IPA^(key): /wɒt/, (glottalized) [wɒʔ(t)]
    • (in accents with the wine–whine merger)
    • (glottalized, wine–whine merged)
  • (without the wine–whine merger) enPR: hwŏt, IPA^(key): /ʍɒt/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /wɔt/
• (General South African) enPR: wŏt, IPA^(key): /wɑt/, /wɜt/
• (Singapore) IPA^(key): /wʌt/, (as a particle) [wä(ː)t̚˨˩], (now rare) /ʍʌt/
• Rhymes: -ɒt, -ʌt
• Homophones: Watt, watt, wot (all only in British, Australian, NZ, NYC accents with the wine–whine merger)

Determiner

what

1. (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?

2. (relative) Which; the ... that.

   I know what colour I am going to use.

   That depends on what answer is received.

3. (relative) Any ... that; all ... that; whatever.

4. 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.

   1. (exclamative) Used to form exclamations indicating that something is remarkable, in either a good or bad way.

      Synonym: such

      • Little Red Riding Hood, traditional folk tale

        “Oh Granny, what big eyes you have,” said Little Red Riding Hood.

Usage notes

In cases where both "what" and "which" are possible, with similar meaning, "what" is preferred for open-ended choices, while "which" is preferred for choices from a closed group or set. For example, "Which one of these do you want?" not "What one of these do you want?".

As used to begin an exclamation, what and such are largely interchangeable, with a few exceptions:

• Nouns modified by such need not appear at the beginning of the sentence: She sings with such passion.
• such requires that the noun phrase it modifies be gradable in some way. Such a disaster! is acceptable because a disaster may be minor or major in degree, but Such a movie! is not (except with the unusual meaning that the movie under discussion has especially "movie-like" qualities).

how is another word used at the beginning of a sentence to form an exclamation (How quickly he ran!), but it modifies different syntactic elements (verbs, adjectives, adverbs, and certain determinatives).

Translations

Pronoun

what

1. (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.

   • 2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

     The gym is across from … what? — The gym is across from the lounge. — Across from the lounge. Right. Thanks!

2. (fused relative) That which; those that; the thing(s) that.

3. (fused relative) Anything that; all that; whatever.

4. (relative, nonstandard) That; which; who.

   'Ere! There's that bloke what I saw earlier!

Translations

Adverb

what (not comparable)

1. (interrogative) In what way; to what extent.

   What does it matter?

   What do you care?

2. 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.
   • 1815, Rev. Mr. Milne, letter reprinted in The Evangelical Magazine and Missionary Chronicle, Volume 23, page 82. [1]

     The Chinese of all ranks, and in every place, received my books gladly, and listened with patience to what I had to say about the true God.—So that what from opportunities of attending to the object of my Mission among the Chinese—what from seasons of religious instruction to Dutch and English—what from intercourse with gentlemen of education and knowledge of the world—what from occasions of stating clearly the object of Missions, and of endeavouring to remove prejudices against them—and what from the view of a highly cultivated country, happy under an enlightened and liberal government, I have much reason to be satisfied with this journey [...]

Translations

Interjection

what

1. An expression of surprise or disbelief.

   What! That’s amazing!

2. What do you want? An abrupt, usually unfriendly enquiry as to what a person desires.

3. (British, colloquial, dated) Clipping of what do you say? Used as a type of tag question to emphasise a statement and invite agreement, often rhetorically.

4. What did you say? I beg your pardon? This usage is often considered impolite, with the more polite "Pardon?" or "Excuse me?" preferred.

5. Indicating a guess or approximation, or a pause to try to recall information.

Alternative forms

• wha

Synonyms

• (colloquial British interjection): what-what, wot
• (what did you say?): come again, pardon; see also Thesaurus:say again

Translations

Noun

what (countable and uncountable, plural whats)

1. (obsolete, uncountable) Something; thing; stuff.
2. (countable) The identity of a thing, as an answer to a question of what.
3. (countable) Something that is addressed by what, as opposed to a person, addressed by who.
   • 2012, "We Are Both", season 2, episode 2 of Once Upon a Time

     Regina: What are you?

     Rumplestiltskin: What? What? What? My, my, what a rude question! I am not a what.

Particle

what

1. (Manglish, Singlish) Emphasizes the truth of an assertion made to contradict an evidently false assumption held by the listener.

Derived terms

See also

• (Singlish particles): ah, hor, know, lah, leh, liao, lor, mah, meh, one, sia

References

• Low, Ee Ling, Brown, Adam (2005) English in Singapore: An Introduction, →ISBN
• Kuteva, Tania, Rhee, Seongha, Ziegeler, Debra, Sabban, Jessica (2018) “On sentence-final “what” in Singlish: Are you the Queen of England, or what?”, in Journal of Language Contact‎^[3]

Anagrams

• HAWT, Thaw, Wath, hawt, thaw, wath

Chinese

Alternative forms

• What

Etymology

From clipping of English WhatsApp.

Pronunciation

Verb

what

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) to WhatsApp; to send via WhatsApp

Middle English

Etymology 1

From Old English hwæt, from Proto-West Germanic *hwat, from Proto-Germanic *hwat, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷód.

Alternative forms

• whad, whote, watte, wath, wad, qhat
• whæt, whæht, waht, waet, wæht, weht, hweat (Southern West Mid)

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʍat/, /wat/

Pronoun

what

1. what

Descendants

• English: what
• Scots: what, whate, whit, whut, wha', quhat, quat, fat, faht, phat, fit, fut, fout, at
• Yola: faade, fhaade, faad, fade, f'ad, fadere

Adverb

what

1. Why.
2. Used to introduce each of two coordinate phrases or concepts; both...and...

Descendants

• Yola: fad

References

• “what, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• “what, adv. & conj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Etymology 2

Noun

what

1. Alternative form of whate

Scots

Etymology 1

From Middle English what, from Old English hwæt, from Proto-West Germanic *hwat. Cognates include English what and Yola faade.

Alternative forms

• whate, whit, whut, wha', quhat, quat, fat, faht, phat, fit, fut, fout, at

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ʍɑt], [ʍo̞t], [ʍɪt], [ʍʌt], [ʍɑʔ]
• (Shetland) IPA^(key): [kwɑt]

Pronoun

what

1. (interrogative) what?
2. (relative) that, which

Adverb

what

1. (interrogative) how?
2. (interrogative) why?
3. (relative) as, than, how
4. (exclamatory) how!

Determiner

what

1. (interrogative) what?
2. (relative) what, which
3. (exclamatory) what a lot of! how many!

Etymology 2

From Middle English whetten, from Old English hwettan, from Proto-West Germanic *hwattjan. Cognates include English whet.

Alternative forms

• whatt

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ʍɑt]

Verb

what (third-person singular simple present whats, present participle whatin, simple past whatt, past participle whatt)

1. (transitive) to whet, hone, sharpen

References

Yola

Etymology

From Middle English whætte, from Old English hwettan, from Proto-West Germanic *hwattjan.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /wat/

Verb

what

1. to whet

References

• Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 78