Standard Lemma guide

whom

pron · 6 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.

  • British, Southern, Standard: /hʉwm/
  • British, Southern, Standard: /ʔʉwm/
  • /huːm/
  • US: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • UK: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
  • rhymes with -uːm
  • Early, Modern: /h(w)uːm/
  • Early, Modern: /h(w)ɔːm/
  • Early, Modern: /hwɒm/ originally unstressed
  • CMU ARPABET: HH UW1 M Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.

1

pron

Meaning 1

What person or people; which person or people.

As the object of a verb.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: formal, interrogative, often

Examples

  • Whom did you ask?

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

2

pron

Meaning 2

What person or people; which person or people.

As the object of a preposition.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: formal, interrogative, often

Examples

  • To whom are you referring?
  • With whom were you talking?

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

3

pron

Meaning 3

Used to refer to a previously mentioned person or people.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: formal, often, relative

Examples

  • That is the woman whom I spoke to earlier. (defining)
  • Mr Smith, whom we all know well, will be giving the speech. (non-defining)
  • He's a person with whom I work (defining)
  • We have ten employees, half of whom are carpenters. (non-defining)
  • There is a new girl in the class whom I consider to be a wunderkind.
  • She felt miserable unless she had neighbors with whom to quarrel regularly.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

4

pron

Meaning 4

The person(s) whom; whomever.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: formal, often

Qualifier: fused relative; archaic outside set patterns; fused relative; archaic outside set patterns

Examples

  • To whom it may concern, all business of John Smith Ltd. has now been transferred to Floggitt & Runne.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

5

pron

Meaning 5

Also used with names of collective nouns that are groups of people, especially singularly-named musical groups or sports teams.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: formal, informal, often

Qualifier: especially non-US

Examples

  • Whom was Lemmy bassist for? Motörhead!

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

6

pron

Meaning 6

Honorific alternative letter-case form of whom, sometimes used when referring to God or another important figure who is understood from context.

Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract

Usage: alt-of, honorific

No example sentence was provided for this meaning.

Meaning relationships

Synonyms: none provided

Antonyms: none provided

History

Etymology

From Middle English whom, wham, from Old English hwām, hwǣm, from Proto-Germanic *hwammai, dative case of *hwaz (“who, what”). Cognate with Scots wham (“whom”), German wem (“whom, to whom”), Danish hvem (“who, whom”), Swedish vem (“who, whom”).

Across languages

Translations

161 source translations are retained for this English entry.

  • Afrikaans: wie — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Arabic: مَنْ (man) — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Armenian: ում (um) — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Asturian: quién — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Asturian: quienes — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Bulgarian: кого (kogo) — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Catalan: qui — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Catalan: quins — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Ngazidja Comorian: nɗo — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Ngazidja Comorian: nɗopvi — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Czech: koho — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Czech: kterého — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Danish: hvem — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Finnish: kenet — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Finnish: ketkä — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • French: que — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • German: wen — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Haitian Creole: kimoun — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Hindi: किस (kis) — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Hungarian: kit — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Hungarian: kicsodát — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Ido: quan — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Italian: chi — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Latin: quem — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Latin: quam — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Latvian: kam — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Macedonian: кого (kogo) — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Mari: кӧм (köm) — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Middle English: whom — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Norwegian Bokmål: hvem — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: kven — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Occitan: que — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Polish: kogo — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Portuguese: o que — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Portuguese: (for nonhumans) o quê — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Portuguese: quem — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Russian: кого́ (kovó) — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Russian: кому́ (komú) — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Russian: кем (kem) — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Russian: ком (kom) — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Spanish: quién — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Spanish: quiénes — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Swedish: vem — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Swedish: vilka — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Tagalog: kanino — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Tamil: எவன் (evaṉ) — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Tamil: எவள் (evaḷ) — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Tamil: எவர் (evar) — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Turkish: kimi — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Ukrainian: кого́ (kohó) — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Ukrainian: кому́ (komú) — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Volapük: kimi — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Welsh: pwy — what person; object of a verb (accusative)
  • Arabic: مَنْ (man) — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Armenian: ում (um) — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Bulgarian: кому (komu) — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Czech: komu — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Czech: kterému — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Danish: hvem — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Esperanto: kiu — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Esperanto: kiuj — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Esperanto: kiun — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Esperanto: kiujn — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Finnish: kenen — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Finnish: keltä — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Finnish: keneltä — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Finnish: keiltä — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • French: qui — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • German: wem — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Haitian Creole: kimoun — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Italian: chi — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Latin: cui — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Macedonian: кому (komu) — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Middle English: whom — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Norwegian Bokmål: hvem — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Norwegian Nynorsk: kven — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Occitan: a qui — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Occitan: qui — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Polish: komu — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Portuguese: o que — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Portuguese: (for nonhumans) o quê — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Portuguese: quem — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Russian: кого́ (kovó) — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Russian: кому́ (komú) — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Russian: кем (kem) — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Russian: ком (kom) — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Spanish: quién — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Spanish: quiénes — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Spanish: cuyo — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Swedish: vem — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Swedish: vilka — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Tamil: யார் (yār) — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Ukrainian: кого́ (kohó) — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Ukrainian: кому́ (komú) — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Ukrainian: ким (kym) — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Volapük: kime — what person or people, object of a preposition (dative)
  • Afrikaans: waarmee — relative pronoun (object)
  • Afrikaans: waarvan — relative pronoun (object)
  • Afrikaans: etc. — relative pronoun (object)
  • Arabic: اَلَّذِي (allaḏī) — relative pronoun (object)
  • Arabic: الَّتِي (allatī) — relative pronoun (object)
  • Arabic: اَللَّذَيْنِ (al-laḏayni) — relative pronoun (object)
  • Arabic: اَللَّتَيْنِ (al-latayni) — relative pronoun (object)
  • Arabic: اَلَّذِينَ (allaḏīna) — relative pronoun (object)
  • Arabic: اَللَّاتِي (al-lātī) — relative pronoun (object)
  • Arabic: اَللَّائِي (al-lāʔī) — relative pronoun (object)
  • Arabic: اَللَّوَاتِي (al-lawātī) — relative pronoun (object)
  • Armenian: ում (um) — relative pronoun (object)
  • Asturian: quien — relative pronoun (object)
  • Asturian: quienes — relative pronoun (object)
  • Catalan: qui — relative pronoun (object)
  • Catalan: quins — relative pronoun (object)
  • Catalan: qual — relative pronoun (object)
  • Ngazidja Comorian: ikao — relative pronoun (object)
  • Czech: jemuž — relative pronoun (object)
  • Czech: jehož — relative pronoun (object)
  • Czech: komu — relative pronoun (object)
  • Czech: koho — relative pronoun (object)
  • Czech: kterého — relative pronoun (object)
  • Danish: hvem — relative pronoun (object)
  • Danish: hvilken — relative pronoun (object)
  • Dutch: die — relative pronoun (object)
  • Esperanto: kiu — relative pronoun (object)
  • Esperanto: kiuj — relative pronoun (object)
  • Esperanto: kiun — relative pronoun (object)
  • Esperanto: kiujn — relative pronoun (object)
  • Finnish: joka — relative pronoun (object)
  • Finnish: jotka — relative pronoun (object)
  • French: que — relative pronoun (object)
  • German: dem — relative pronoun (object)
  • German: der — relative pronoun (object)
  • German: den — relative pronoun (object)
  • German: die — relative pronoun (object)
  • Hindi: जिस (jis) — relative pronoun (object)
  • Italian: cui — relative pronoun (object)
  • Latin: quam — relative pronoun (object)
  • Latin: quem — relative pronoun (object)
  • Latin: quod — relative pronoun (object)
  • Latin: cui — relative pronoun (object)
  • Middle English: whom — relative pronoun (object)
  • Polish: do kogokolwiek — relative pronoun (object)
  • Portuguese: quem — relative pronoun (object)
  • Portuguese: que — relative pronoun (object)
  • Portuguese: o qual — relative pronoun (object)
  • Portuguese: a qual — relative pronoun (object)
  • Portuguese: os quais — relative pronoun (object)
  • Portuguese: as quais — relative pronoun (object)
  • Russian: кото́рого (kotórovo) — relative pronoun (object)
  • Russian: кото́рому (kotóromu) — relative pronoun (object)
  • Russian: кото́рым (kotórym) — relative pronoun (object)
  • Russian: кото́ром (kotórom) — relative pronoun (object)
  • Spanish: quien — relative pronoun (object)
  • Spanish: quienes — relative pronoun (object)
  • Spanish: cual — relative pronoun (object)
  • Spanish: cuyo — relative pronoun (object)
  • Swedish: som — relative pronoun (object)
  • Swedish: vilken — relative pronoun (object)
  • Swedish: vilket — relative pronoun (object)
  • Swedish: vilka — relative pronoun (object)
  • Ukrainian: ко́трого (kótroho) — relative pronoun (object)
  • Welsh: y — relative pronoun (object)