who

/huː/

//huː// pron

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

"who" is a 3-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.

The verdict

“who” is in the everyday core of English, ranked #53 in English word frequency and used as a pronoun.

#53
frequency rank, English
3
letters
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - What person or people; which person or people; asks for the identity of someone; used in a direct or indirect question.

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

who vs wi
33% similar
who vs Wu
0% similar
who vs wo
67% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for who
PropertyValue
Headwordwho
LanguageEnglish
Part of speechPronoun
IPA/huː/
Letters3
Frequency rank#53
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “who” sits in English frequency

Every-word frequency runs from the handful of words we use constantly (left) to the long tail used once in a blue moon (right). who lands here:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Scale is logarithmic (each tick is 10× rarer). Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The English entry for who is 3 letters long, classified as a pronoun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /huː/. Corpus data places it at rank #53 in overall English word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. Wiktionary records 5 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.

Zero misspellings are on record for who in our index, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "wi", "Wu", "wo", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

Etymologically, the entry records: 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 chan… The correct English form is who, spelled W-H-O.

Definition

  1. 1
    What person or people; which person or people; asks for the identity of someone; used in a direct or indirect question.
  2. 2
    Introduces a relative clause having a human antecedent.
  3. 3
    Introduces a relative clause having a human antecedent.
  4. 4
    Whoever, he who, they who.
  5. 5
    Also used with names of collective nouns that are groups of people, especially singularly-named musical groups or sports teams.

Etymology

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. Compare Scots wha, West Frisian wa, Dutch wie, Low German we, German wer, Swedish vem, Danish hvem, Norwegian Bokmål hvem, Norwegian Nynorsk kven, Icelandic hver.

This word in other languages

quién(Español)qui(Français)wer(Deutsch)quem(Português)

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "who"?
"who" is spelled W-H-O. The IPA pronunciation is /huː/.
What does "who" mean?
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.
What words are commonly confused with "who"?
"who" is commonly confused with "wi", "Wu", "wo". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "who"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "who" is /huː/. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What is the origin of the word "who"?
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 correspo... See the full etymology section above for more details.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “who”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct English spelling is W-H-O - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as /huː/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Don't mix it up with “wi” - see the side-by-side comparison. who vs wi
  • Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source

Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list