WHOSE
What does "WHOSE" mean?
Belonging to or associated with which person, used in questions and relative clauses.
Meanings
- Asking which person something belongs to. Whose jacket is this on the chair?
- Of whom or which, used to introduce a clause giving more information. The author, whose first novel flopped, became famous overnight.
Did you know?
- Despite sounding like it only refers to people, 'whose' is the standard possessive for things too - 'a house whose roof leaks' is perfectly correct English.
Word origin
From Old English 'hwaes', the genitive (possessive) form of 'hwa' meaning 'who', from Proto-Germanic and ultimately the Proto-Indo-European interrogative stem 'kwo-'.
Remember it
WHOSE ends in -OSE like 'those' - both ask or point to belonging.
A little poem
A name on every coat but one-
and whose, unasked, undoes the fun.
couplet
Wordplay
- Owls make terrible detectives - they only ever ask whose, never whodunit.
What it teaches
Before claiming a thing, learn whose hands shaped it; ownership is rarely where it first appears.
Quick facts
What does WHOSE mean?
Belonging to or associated with which person, used in questions and relative clauses.
Is WHOSE a valid word?
Yes — WHOSE is one of the answer words in Wordul, the daily word game.
How many letters is WHOSE?
WHOSE has 5 letters and 1 syllable.
Where does WHOSE come from?
From Old English 'hwaes', the genitive (possessive) form of 'hwa' meaning 'who', from Proto-Germanic and ultimately the Proto-Indo-European interrogative stem 'kwo-'.
What can WHOSE teach us?
Before claiming a thing, learn whose hands shaped it; ownership is rarely where it first appears.
How players do
Be the first to solve it.