Phrase guide

interrogative pronoun

noun · 1 senses · updated from the 2026-07-25 local source snapshot

Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.

Sound

Pronunciation

Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.

  • Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.

1

noun

Meaning 1

A pronoun used in a question. In English, the five interrogative pronouns are what, which, who, whom, and whose (also used as relative pronouns). These require no antecedent.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Topics: grammar, human-sciences, linguistics, sciences

Examples

  • What did you say?
  • Who said that?
  • To whom was that said?
  • Which student said that?
  • Whose question was that?

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

No etymology was provided for this word.

Across languages

Translations

32 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Armenian: հարցական դերանուն (harcʻakan deranun) — pronoun used in a question
  • Azerbaijani: sual əvəzliyi — pronoun used in a question
  • Chinese Mandarin: 疑問代詞 /疑问代词 (yíwèn dàicí) — pronoun used in a question
  • Dutch: vragend voornaamwoord — pronoun used in a question
  • Esperanto: demanda pronomo — pronoun used in a question
  • Faroese: spurnarfornavn — pronoun used in a question
  • Finnish: interrogatiivipronomini — pronoun used in a question
  • Finnish: kysyvä pronomini — pronoun used in a question
  • Finnish: kysymyspronomini — pronoun used in a question
  • French: pronom interrogatif — pronoun used in a question
  • Georgian: კითხვითი ნაცვალსახელი (ḳitxviti nacvalsaxeli) — pronoun used in a question
  • German: Interrogativpronomen — pronoun used in a question
  • German: fragendes Fürwort — pronoun used in a question
  • Greek: ερωτηματική αντωνυμία (erotimatikí antonymía) — pronoun used in a question
  • Hungarian: kérdő névmás — pronoun used in a question
  • Icelandic: spurnarfornafn — pronoun used in a question
  • Irish: forainm ceisteach — pronoun used in a question
  • Italian: pronome interrogativo — pronoun used in a question
  • Japanese: 疑問詞 (gimonshi) — pronoun used in a question
  • Korean: 의문사 (uimunsa) — pronoun used in a question
  • Latin: pronomen interrogativum — pronoun used in a question
  • Norwegian Bokmål: spørrepronomen — pronoun used in a question
  • Portuguese: pronome interrogativo — pronoun used in a question
  • Romanian: pronume interogativ — pronoun used in a question
  • Romansh: pronom interrogativ — pronoun used in a question
  • Russian: вопроси́тельное местоиме́ние (voprosítelʹnoje mestoiménije) — pronoun used in a question
  • Spanish: pronombre interrogativo — pronoun used in a question
  • Tagalog: panghalip pananong — pronoun used in a question
  • Telugu: ప్రశ్నార్థక సర్వనామము (praśnārthaka sarvanāmamu) — pronoun used in a question
  • Thai: ปฤจฉาสรรพนาม (bprìt-chǎa-sàp-pá-naam) — pronoun used in a question
  • Vietnamese: đại từ nghi vấn — pronoun used in a question
  • Welsh: rhagenw gofynnol — pronoun used in a question