# whose

> English word · Determiner · IPA /huːz/ · frequency rank #919

## Definitions
1. Of whom, belonging to whom; which person's or people's.
2. Of whom, belonging to whom.
3. Of which, belonging to which.

## Etymology
From Middle English whos, from Old English hwæs, from Proto-Germanic *hwes, genitive case of *hwaz (“who”) *hwat (“what”).

## Easily confused with
- **woe** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whose-vs-woe)
- **wise** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whose-vs-wise)
- **wore** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whose-vs-wore)
- **woke** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whose-vs-woke)
- **wove** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whose-vs-wove)
- **wrote** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whose-vs-wrote)
- **worse** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whose-vs-worse)
- **Whyte** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whose-vs-whyte)
- **who** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/who-vs-whose)
- **whom** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whom-vs-whose)
- **whoa** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whoa-vs-whose)
- **whos** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whos-vs-whose)
- **whoo** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whoo-vs-whose)
- **where** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/where-vs-whose)
- **while** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/while-vs-whose)
- **white** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/white-vs-whose)
- **whole** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whole-vs-whose)
- **who's** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/who-s-vs-whose)
- **whale** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whale-vs-whose)
- **whore** (https://plainspell.com/en/vs/whore-vs-whose)

## Common misspellings (7)
`hwose`, `whhose`, `whoes`, `whosse`, `whsoe`, `wohse`, `wwhose`

## Source
Compiled from Wiktionary via kaikki.org (CC BY-SA). Data vintage: 2026-05-06.
Canonical page: https://plainspell.com/en/word/whose