whom

\hum\

/\hum\/ pron

The verdict

“whom” is uncommon French (frequency #87,257 among 549 “W” headwords), classed as a pronoun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#87,257
frequency rank, French
549
“W” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Que, forme objet de who « qui ».

Corpus desk

Index FR-whom · whom · French

whom · rank #87,257 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #87,257
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 549
  • PHOTO-FINISH whig

Nearest frequency peer: whig (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rangs de longue queue près de « whom »

Bande clairsemée: les barres inversent le rang pour que le rare se lise plus court

corpus weight

What this shows Vue de longue queue: où « whom » se situe face à des rangs français aussi rares.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for whom
PropertyValue
Headwordwhom
LanguageFrench
Part of speechPronoun
IPA\hum\
Letters4
Frequency rank#87,257
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Longue queue: rang de « whom » en français

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).whomtombe dans cette queue de rareté:

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

Les tics avancent en logarithme; chacun est de l'ordre de dix fois plus rare. Voisins rares de la même bande: « whig » (#87,256), « wieder » (#87,258), « Welle » (#87,255). Parmi 549 lemmes en « W », « whom » est au #87,257. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

whom is uncommon French at frequency #87,257 among 549 “W” headwords, classed as apronoun, transcribed \hum\. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for whom, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. No close-neighbour confusable shows up for this headword in our dataset, which typically means the spelling is too distinctive to be mistaken for another word.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is best read as a straightforward mapping from sound to letter. The correct French form is whom, spelled W-H-O-M.

Definition

  1. 1
    Que, forme objet de who « qui ».
  2. 2
    Qui avec une préposition.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how whom appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. In the second excerpt transcribed below, Tom Cruise is talking about his work with fellow Hollywood actor Dustin Hoffman, whom he refers to simply as Dustin.
  2. Note : omis, ou remplacé par who/that, dans le langage courant.

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 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "whom"?
"whom" is spelled W-H-O-M. The IPA pronunciation is \hum\.
What does "whom" mean?
As a pronoun, "whom" means: Que, forme objet de who « qui ».
How do you pronounce "whom"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "whom" is \hum\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "whom" come from?
"whom" is a French word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
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.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "whom", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list