what

Less common meanings

5. 5
   interjection

   Used to express surprise or disbelief, standing alone or opening a sentence.

   What? They canceled the whole festival?

   What? You're telling me the bus left without us?

   Note

   An interjection with a long stage history. King Lear has What, have his daughters brought him to this pass?, where the burst of astonishment arrives before the sentence proper. It still works that way today, either alone or as an opener, and informal writing stretches it for effect (whattt). Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

   • The interjection has a long stage history, illustrated by King Lear. en.wikipedia.org
   • King Lear contains the exact quoted line, spoken by Lear in Act 3, Scene 4. shakespeare.mit.edu
6. 6
   interjection

   Used to ask for something to be repeated, often considered impolite.

   What? You'll have to speak louder, the music's too loud.

   He cupped a hand to his ear and said, what?

   UsageSorry? or pardon? is the politer way to ask someone to repeat something.

   Similarpardon, sorry

7. 7
   determinerrelative

   Any or all the ... that; whatever, often with little.

   She gave what help she could.

   We used what few tools we had.

   UsageUsually with little or few: what little money she had, what few tools we had.

   Similarwhatever

   Note

   A relative determiner that measures as it points. What sense he had hints that there was not much of it, and Dickens's what little food was left says so outright. Its pronoun twin is the "anything that" pronoun. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

   • Dickens wrote the words “what little food was left”; they occur in Pip's narration in Great Expectations, Chapter III. gutenberg.org
8. 8
   curt replyinterjection

   Used abruptly, and usually unfriendly, in reply to someone who has knocked, called, or interrupted.

   He looked up from the paper and snapped, what?

   What? If it's about the rent, come back Friday.

   UsageOn its own it sounds impatient; yes? is the friendlier answer to a knock or a call.

9. 9
   rough guessinterjection

   Used between commas to mark a guess or approximation, or a pause to recall something.

   We drove, what, three hundred miles that day?

   She's been here since, what, March?

10. 10
    adverbinterrogative

    Used in questions to mean in what way, to what extent, or how far.

    What does it matter now whose idea it was?

    What do I care if they laugh?

    UsageMostly in what does it matter? and what do I care?

    Similarhow

    Note

    An adverb of degree that lives mostly with matter and care. What does it matter? means how much does it matter, and the expected answer is not at all. The question is nearly always rhetorical, a challenge in the shape of a query.

11. 11
    because ofadverb

    Used before a phrase introduced by with, rarely another preposition, to mark it as a cause or reason.

    What with one thing and another, the letter never got written.

    The garden's a mess, what with the drought.

    Note

    A frame for causes that piles reasons up without ranking them, usually to explain a result. Eighteenth-century prose could repeat it with by: Bolingbroke writes what by the indiscretion of people here, what by the rebound which came often back from London. A missionary's letter printed in 1815 still strings reasons together with what from. Today with is almost the only partner left. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • Bolingbroke used repeated 'what by' in eighteenth-century prose, with the wording quoted. gutenberg.org
    • Wiktionary cites a letter by Rev. Mr. Milne reprinted in 1815, but its wording is different: it lists specific reasons, including 'what from seasons of religious instruction to Dutch and English'. The citation dates publication, not necessarily composition. en.wiktionary.org
12. 12
    the factsnouncountable

    The identity of a thing, as distinct from the how or why, usually paired with hows and whys.

    Researchers were told to describe the what before the how.

    A good project plan explains the what, the how, and the why.

13. 13
    that (dialect)pronounnonstandardrelative

    Used after a noun to mean that, which, or who.

    It was the dog what ate the pie.

    She's the one what told me.

    Similarthat, who, which

    Note

    A relative used in place of that or who, and a sure sign of dialect speech on the page: that bloke what was 'ere yesterday, the thing what has stole his heart. Conan Doyle in 1887 and Barrie in a play first staged in 1902 both give it to their characters' speech. In dialogue it marks a voice. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts

    • Conan Doyle's cited example occurs in A Study in Scarlet, first published in 1887. en.wikipedia.org
    • The phrase about the thing that stole his heart occurs in Barrie's character dialogue, spoken by Tweeny. gutenberg.org
14. 14
    not a personnouncountable

    A thing or non-person, as opposed to a person.

    Is the alien a who or a what?

    To us, our dog is a who, not a what.

    Similarthing

    Oppositewho

    Note

    The noun at the heart of the who/what split. People are asked about with who and everything else with what, so calling someone a what denies them personhood. The split runs deep: the Old English source of the word was the neuter form of the root behind who. Source

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • What derives from Old English hwæt, the neuter form corresponding to who. en.wiktionary.org
15. 15
    seeking agreementinterjectiondatedBritishabbreviationclipping

    Short for what do you say?: added to the end of a statement to stress it and invite agreement, often rhetorically, in old-fashioned British speech.

    Can't have the servants thinking we're soft, what?

    “That’s riled them,” said my compaion. “Good work, what?”

    1918, Denis Garstin, The Shilling Soldiers

    Note

    A clipped tag, cut down from what do you say? and placed last, after a comma, to press a statement on the listener: good work, what? Denis Garstin has it in 1918, and a 1991 Jeeves and Wooster episode puts it in Chuffy's mouth. Today it reads as period color or parody, and it expects a nod rather than an answer. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 5 facts

    • The British tag is a clipping of 'what do you say?' en.wiktionary.org
    • 'Good work, what?' occurs in Denis Garstin's The Shilling Soldiers; the speaker is the narrator's companion. upload.wikimedia.org
    • Garstin's book containing the example was published in 1918. The original title page is undated; the institutional account supplies the year. grants.fnl.org.uk
    • The relevant Jeeves and Wooster episode, 'Kidnapped!', aired in 1991. en.wikipedia.org
    • Chuffy uses the sentence-final tag in that episode. en.wiktionary.org
16. 16
    particleManglishSinglish

    In Singapore and Malaysian English, used at the end of a sentence to stress that something is obvious or true, often correcting or disagreeing with the listener.

    He's not overseas, he's in the office, what.

    The ticket is free, what, why you pay?

    Note

    The corrective member of the Singlish and Manglish sentence-final particles. It treats the listener's belief as plainly mistaken and the truth as something they ought to know: it's not that far, what. It is spoken with a low or low-dipping pitch. It can also simply invite agreement on something taken as obvious, much like right? Though it has the form of the question word, it asks nothing.

17. 17
    nounobsoleteuncountable

    Something; a thing or stuff.

    Note

    The question word once doubled as a plain noun for stuff or fare. In 1596, Spenser's hosts give their guest such homely what as serves the simple clowne. Read it as you would food or things in old verse. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • What formerly functioned as a noun meaning something, a thing, or stuff. en.wiktionary.org
    • The quoted passage first appeared in 1596, in Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, Book VI. en.wikisource.org
    • Spenser's narrator describes shepherds feeding their guest with these words; serves modernizes the original spelling serues. en.wikisource.org