How

How to spell how

3 letters · 1 syllable

How to pronounce how

What does how mean?

1. adverbIn what way or by what means; also used to ask about extent, condition, or manner.

How in a sentence

• The manual explains how to install the new software.

• Nobody could agree on how the budget had been spent.

Where does how come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This is a native English word, descending from the Old English hū, meaning 'in what way' or 'by what means'. It belongs to the same ancient family of question words that begins with the wh- and h- sounds, including what, who and why, all of which trace back to a Proto-Germanic interrogative stem and ultimately to a Proto-Indo-European root that produced question words across many European languages. The spelling settled into the modern h-o-w shape during the Middle English period, when scribes were standardising the older hū into a form that matched the emerging spelling patterns of words like now and cow. Although it is one of the most common words in English, its compact spelling masks that long history. Because it has been an everyday word for well over a thousand years, it has stayed remarkably stable in both form and meaning.

How the word is built

• how (single root, from Old English hū, an interrogative adverb; no prefix or suffix)