who
/hu/pronoun, noun, determiner
who is spelled W-H-O: 3 letters and one syllable. It appears 2,188 times per million words in written English, the 54th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). People search “that vs who” about 880 times a month (Google, United States). As a pronoun, who means “What person or people; which person or people; asks for the identity of someone; used in a direct or indirect question” (English Wiktionary, September 2026).
How many letters and syllables are in who?
| Letters | 3: W-H-O |
|---|---|
| Syllables | 1 (from its American pronunciation) |
| In writing | 2,188 times per million words; the 54th most frequent word form |
| Wrong spellings searched | none measured in search |
| Pairs people search | |
| Rhymes with | |
| Same letters |
Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media); Bing searches in the United States: the average month from September 2025 to August 2026 (Microsoft Advertising keyword data through DataForSEO, read September 30, 2026); rhymes and same-letter words are computed by PlainSpell from its own word list.
How common is who?
Who appears 2,188 times per million words in written English, the 54th most frequent word form in the list.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).
How do you pronounce who?
- UK /huː/
- British /hʉw/
- US /hu/
Who has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: LL-Q1860_(eng)-Back_ache-who.wav, En-uk-who.ogg, En-us-who.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).
Words people confuse with who
Word pairs people search, with the monthly searches for “a vs b” (G: Google, B: Bing, United States).
Sources: Google and Bing searches (September 2025 to August 2026, through DataForSEO); English Wiktionary (homophones, alternative spellings).
What rhymes with who?
The 12 most written words on PlainSpell end in the same sounds as who from its last stressed vowel (/u/):
Spelled with the same letters in another order: how.
Computed by PlainSpell from the pronunciations in the English Wiktionary (dump of September 2, 2026): a rhyme shares every sound from the last stressed vowel to the end; ordered by written frequency (wordfreq 3.1).
Forms of who
- whom
- whose
- whos plural
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
What does who mean?
The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).
pronoun
- 1
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
With antecedent as subject.
That's the man who works at the newsagent. (defining)
- 3
With antecedent as object: whom.
That's the man who I saw earlier.
- 4
Whoever, he who, they who.
Who dares wins.
- 5
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?
noun
- 1
A person under discussion; a question of which person.
determiner
- 1
whose
Who phone just rang?
pronoun
- 1
Honorific alternative letter-case form of who, sometimes used when referring to God or another important figure who is understood from context.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).
Who in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese
| Language | Words |
|---|---|
| French | qui |
| German | wer , der, die, das |
| Portuguese | quem , que |
| Spanish | quién, quiénes , quien, que , quienes |
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.
Where does who come from?
From Middle English who, hwo, huo, wha, hwoa, hwa, from Old English hwā (dative hwām, genitive hwæs), from Proto-West Germanic *hwaʀ, from Proto-Germanic *hwaz, from Proto-Indo-European *kʷos, *kʷís. The sound change /hw/ > /h/ (without a corresponding change in spelling) was due to wh-cluster reduction after an irregular change of /ɑː/ to /oː/ in Middle English (instead of the expected /ɔː/) and further to /uː/ regularly in Early Modern English. A similar change occurred in two. Compare how, which underwent wh-reduction earlier (in Old English), and thus is spelt with h.
Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).