what
what - English
Pronunciation
- (General American) IPA: /wɑt/
- (General Australian) IPA: /wɔt/
- (General South African) enPR: wŏt, IPA: /wɑt/, /wɜt/
- Homophones: Watt, watt, wot (all only in British, Australian, New Zealand, New York City accents with the wine–whine merger)
- (Singapore) IPA: /wʌt/, (as a particle) [wɐ̠ˑt̚˨], [-˨˩], (now rare) /hwʌt/
Determiner
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?
- (relative) Which; the ... that.
- I know what colour I am going to use.
- That depends on what answer is received.
- (relative) Any ... that; all ... that; whatever.
- He seems to have lost what sense he had.
- What money I earn is soon spent.
- 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.
- Used to form exclamations.
- Synonym: such
- What nonsense!
- Wow! What a speech.
- What some lovely weather we've been having!
- What beautiful children you have.
- With what passion she sings!
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).
Derived terms
Translations
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Pronoun
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.
- (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.
- (fused relative) Anything that; all that; whatever.
- I will do what I can to help you.
- What is mine is yours.
- (relative, nonstandard) That; which; who.
- 'Ere! There's that bloke what I saw earlier!
Translations
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Adverb
what (not comparable)
- (interrogative) In what way; to what extent.
- What does it matter?
- What do you care?
- 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.
Translations
Interjection
what
- An expression of surprise or disbelief.
- What do you want? An abrupt, usually unfriendly enquiry as to what a person desires.
- What? I'm busy.
- (Britain, colloquial, dated) 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?
- What did you say? I beg your pardon?
- — Could I have some of those aarrrrrr mmmm ... — What?
- Indicating a guess or approximation, or a pause to try to recall information.
- I must have been, what, about five years old.
Alternative forms
Synonyms
- (colloquial British interjection): what-what, wot
- (what did you say?): come again, pardon; see also say again
Translations
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Noun
what (countable and uncountable, plural whats)
Particle
what
- (Manglish, Singlish) Emphasizes the truth of an assertion made to contradict an evidently false assumption held by the listener.
- — Too bad there isn't a library nearby. — The National Library is a five-minute walk from here what.
Derived terms
Anagrams
what - Chinese
Alternative forms
- What
Pronunciation
- Cantonese (Jyutping): wot1, wat1
- Cantonese
- (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)+
- Jyutping: wot1, wat1
- Yale: wōt, wāt
- Cantonese Pinyin: wot7, wat7
- Guangdong Romanization: wod1, wed1
- Sinological IPA : /wɔːt̚⁵/, /wɐt̚⁵/
- (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)+
Verb
what
- (Hong Kong Cantonese) to WhatsApp; to send via WhatsApp
what - Middle English
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ʍat/, /wat/
Pronoun
what
Descendants
Adverb
what
- Why.
- Used to introduce each of two coordinate phrases or concepts; both...and...
Noun
what
- Alternative form of whate
what - Scots
Alternative forms
Pronunciation
- IPA: [ʍɑt], [ʍo̞t], [ʍɪt], [ʍʌt], [ʍɑʔ]
- (Shetland) IPA: [kwɑt]
Pronoun
what
Adverb
what
Determiner
what
Alternative forms
- whatt
Pronunciation
- IPA: [ʍɑt]
Verb
what (third-person singular simple present whats, present participle whatin, simple past whatt, past participle whatt)
what - Yola
Verb
what
- to whet