What
Definition, Meaning & Examples
Pronunciation /wɒt/ · Part of speech determiner
Quick meaning: What is a determiner meaning (interrogative) Which, especially which of an open-ended set of possibilities.
Meaning
(interrogative) Which, especially which of an open-ended set of possibilities.
More Meanings
- (indirect interrogative) Which.
- (relative) Any ... that; all ... that; whatever.
- (interrogative) Which thing, event, circumstance, etc.: used in asking for the specification of an identity, quantity, quality, etc.
- (fused relative) That which; those that; the thing(s) that.
- (fused relative) Anything that; all that; whatever.
- (relative, nonstandard) That; which; who.
- Emphasises that something is noteworthy or remarkable in quality or degree, in either a good or bad way; may be used in combination with certain other determiners, especially 'a', less often 'some'.
Example Sentences
What time is it?
What kind of car is that?
What colour are you going to use?
I know what colour I am going to use.
Word Forms
- wha
- whats
Synonyms for what
Depending on context, synonyms include what-what, wot, pardon, mah, leh.
Related Words
Related dictionary entries include whatever, whereof, really, anything, guess, enable.
Related Dictionary Tools
Sources & Attribution
FreeDictionaryAPI.com / Wiktionary · Original source · CC BY-SA 4.0
Dictionary data is provided by FreeDictionaryAPI.com and sourced from Wiktionary under its stated license.