What
pronounUsed to ask for information about something, or to refer to the thing or things in question.
How to spell what
4 letters · 1 syllable
How to pronounce what
What does what mean?
- pronounUsed to ask for information about something, or to refer to the thing or things in question.
What in a sentence
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What time does the meeting start on Monday?
-
She could not decide what to order from the menu.
Where does what come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
The word descends from the Old English hwæt, an interrogative that meant 'what' or 'why' and belonged to the same family of question words as 'who', 'which' and 'when'. These all began with the cluster spelled hw-, which was once pronounced with the h sounded clearly before the w, the order later reversed in spelling to wh-. The hwæt form traces back to a Proto-Germanic root that also produced the German 'was' and the Dutch 'wat', and ultimately to a Proto-Indo-European root for question words that also lies behind the Latin 'quod'. The famous opening word of the Old English poem Beowulf is in fact 'Hwæt', a call for attention. The modern spelling keeps the historic wh- even though most speakers now say it simply as a w sound, which is the small trap that makes 'what' and 'watt' sound alike.
How the word is built
- wh- (interrogative element from Old English hwæt)
- single word root; no separable suffix
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