"who" meaning in English

See who in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Pronoun

IPA: /huː/ [UK], /hu/ [US] Audio: en-us-who.ogg [US], en-uk-who.ogg [UK]
  1. You use who to add a clause to explain more about the person or people you're talking about.
    Sense id: simple-who-en-pron-G8Mohv8Q
  2. You use who to ask about a person or people.
    Sense id: simple-who-en-pron-DiBnbWUx
{
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "pron",
  "senses": [
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "They are good people who are working hard."
        },
        {
          "text": "We saw Kim, who was in his car."
        },
        {
          "text": "We asked everybody who was there."
        },
        {
          "text": "It was you who lost the keys, not me."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "You use who to add a clause to explain more about the person or people you're talking about."
      ],
      "id": "simple-who-en-pron-G8Mohv8Q",
      "raw_tags": [
        "relative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Who was on the phone?"
        },
        {
          "text": "Who's your new teacher?"
        },
        {
          "text": "Who did you meet today?"
        },
        {
          "text": "He told me who was there."
        },
        {
          "text": "I'll ask who can help us."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "You use who to ask about a person or people."
      ],
      "id": "simple-who-en-pron-DiBnbWUx",
      "raw_tags": [
        "question"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/huː/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/hu:/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/hu/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/hu/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-who.ogg",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Audio"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-uk-who.ogg",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Audio"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "who"
}
{
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "pron",
  "senses": [
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "They are good people who are working hard."
        },
        {
          "text": "We saw Kim, who was in his car."
        },
        {
          "text": "We asked everybody who was there."
        },
        {
          "text": "It was you who lost the keys, not me."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "You use who to add a clause to explain more about the person or people you're talking about."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "relative"
      ]
    },
    {
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Who was on the phone?"
        },
        {
          "text": "Who's your new teacher?"
        },
        {
          "text": "Who did you meet today?"
        },
        {
          "text": "He told me who was there."
        },
        {
          "text": "I'll ask who can help us."
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "You use who to ask about a person or people."
      ],
      "raw_tags": [
        "question"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "ipa": "/huː/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/hu:/",
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/hu/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "sampa": "/hu/",
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-us-who.ogg",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Audio"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "US"
      ]
    },
    {
      "audio": "en-uk-who.ogg",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Audio"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "UK"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "who"
}

Download raw JSONL data for who meaning in English (1.0kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-03-30 from the simplewiktionary dump dated 2025-03-21 using wiktextract (fef8596 and 633533e). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.