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Who or whom?

who is a pronoun meaning “What person or people; which person or people; asks for the identity of…”; whom is a pronoun meaning “As the object of a verb”. In written English (wordfreq, 2021 data) who is about 31 times as common as whom.

whoorwhom

What is the difference between who and whom?

whowhom
Part of speechpronoun, noun, determinerpronoun
Meaning

What person or people; which person or people; asks for the identity of someone; used in a direct or indirect question

With antecedent as subject

A person under discussion; a question of which person

As the object of a verb

As the object of a preposition

ExampleYou're getting married‽ Who to? (direct question)Whom did you ask?
Formswhom, whosenone
Pronunciation/huː/ /hʉw/ /hu//huːm/ /hʉwm/ /hum/
In writing2,188 times per million words71 times per million words

Sources: who and whom in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Every current meaning of who and whom

who

  1. 1

    pronoun 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

    noun A person under discussion; a question of which person

  3. 3

    determiner whose

    Who phone just rang?

  4. 4

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

  5. 5

    pronoun With antecedent as subject

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

  6. 6

    pronoun With antecedent as object: whom

    That's the man who I saw earlier

  7. 7

    pronoun Whoever, he who, they who

    Who dares wins

  8. 8

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

    Who are the Miami Heat?

whom

  1. 1

    pronoun As the object of a verb

    Whom did you ask?

  2. 2

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

  3. 3

    pronoun As the object of a preposition

    To whom are you referring?

  4. 4

    pronoun Used to refer to a previously mentioned person or people

    That is the woman whom I spoke to earlier. (defining)

  5. 5

    pronoun The person(s) whom; whomever

    To whom it may concern, all business of John Smith Ltd. has now been transferred to Floggitt & Runne

  6. 6

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

    Whom was Lemmy bassist for? Motörhead!

Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.

Which is more common, who or whom?

who appears 2,188 times per million words; whom 71 times per million words.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

The words