Whoever

How to spell whoever

7 letters · 3 syllables

How to pronounce whoever

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does whoever mean?

1. pronounThe person or any person that; used to refer to an unknown or unrestricted individual.

Whoever in a sentence

• Whoever left the lights on will get a stern note from the office manager.

• The prize goes to whoever submits the best design by Friday.

Where does whoever come from?

Language of origin: Germanic

This word is a compound of the ancient pronoun 'who' and the intensifying element 'ever'. The 'who' part descends from Old English 'hwa', a native Germanic pronoun used in questions, which traces back to the same prehistoric root that gave Latin 'quis' and many other European question words. The '-ever' element comes from Old English 'aefre', meaning 'at any time' or 'always', and over the centuries it fused onto question words to form a family of generalising pronouns such as 'whoever', 'whatever', and 'whenever'. The combined form, carrying the sense 'any person at all who', settled into Middle English as the two parts were written together. Because the word ends with a single 'r' and packs two ordinary words into one, writers sometimes hesitate over whether to double a letter or hyphenate, but it is simply 'who' plus 'ever' with nothing added or removed.

How the word is built

• who (interrogative/relative pronoun)
• -ever (emphatic suffix meaning 'no matter which')