Define the word whom

English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

• whome (obsolete)

Etymology[edit]

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”).

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /huːm/
• Rhymes: -uːm

Pronoun[edit]

whom (the singular and plural objective case of who) (formal)

1. (interrogative) What person or people; which person or people.
   1. As the object of a verb.

      Whom did you ask?

      • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XVIII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

        “Oh?” she said. “So you have decided to revise my guest list for me? You have the nerve, the – the –” I saw she needed helping out. “Audacity,” I said, throwing her the line. “The audacity to dictate to me who I shall have in my house.” It should have been “whom”, but I let it go. “You have the –” “Crust.” “– the immortal rind,” she amended, and I had to admit it was stronger, “to tell me whom” – she got it right that time – “I may entertain at Brinkley Court and who” – wrong again – “I may not.”

   2. As the object of a preposition.

      To whom are you referring?

      With whom were you talking?

      • 1922, Ben Travers, chapter 1, in A Cuckoo in the Nest‎^[1]:

        He read the letter aloud. Sophia listened with the studied air of one for whom, even in these days, a title possessed some surreptitious allurement.

      • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter I, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

        “A very hearty pip-pip to you, old ancestor,” I said, well pleased, for she is a woman with whom it is always a privilege to chew the fat. “And a rousing toodle-oo to you, you young blot on the landscape,” she replied cordially.

2. (relative) Used to refer to a previously mentioned person or people.

   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)

   • 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 1, in Death on the Centre Court:

     “Anthea hasn’t a notion in her head but to vamp a lot of silly mugwumps. She’s set her heart on that tennis bloke […] whom the papers are making such a fuss about.”

   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter I, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

     The eminent brain specialist to whom she alluded was a man I would not have cared to lunch with myself, our relations having been on the stiff side since the night at Lady Wickham’s place in Hertfordshire when, acting on the advice of my hostess’s daughter Roberta, I had punctured his hot-water bottle with a darning needle in the small hours of the morning. Quite unintentional, of course.

3. (fused relative, archaic outside set patterns) The person(s) whom; whomever.

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

Usage notes[edit]

• Who is a subject pronoun. Whom is an object pronoun. To determine whether a particular sentence uses a subject or an object pronoun, rephrase it to use he/she/they or him/her/them instead of who, whom; if you use he, she or they, then you use the subject pronoun who; if you use him, her or them, then you use the object pronoun. The same rule applies to whoever/whosoever/whoso and whomever/whomsoever/whomso.

• Who can also be used as an object pronoun, especially in informal writing and speech (hence one hears not only whom are you waiting for? but also who are you waiting for?), and whom may be seen as (overly) formal; in some dialects and contexts, it is hardly used, even in the most formal settings. As an exception to this, fronted prepositional phrases almost always use whom, e.g. one usually says with whom did you go?, not *with who did you go?. However, dialects in which whom is rarely used usually avoid fronting prepositional phrases in the first place (for example, using who did you go with?).

• The use of who as an object pronoun is proscribed by many authorities, but is frequent nonetheless. It is usually felt to be much more acceptable than the converse hypercorrection in which whom is misused in place of who, as in *the savage whom spoke to me.

• For more information, see «who» and «whom» on Wikipedia.

Derived terms[edit]

Translations[edit]

Anagrams[edit]

• how’m

Middle English[edit]

Alternative forms[edit]

• ȝwam, hom, home, huam, qwom, wam, wham, whem, whome, whoom, whoome
• (northern) quam, quem, quuam, qwam, whaim, whame, whaym
• (early) hwam, hwem, whamm, whæm

Etymology[edit]

From Old English hwām, hwǣm (dative of hwā), from Proto-West Germanic *hwammē (dative of *hwaʀ), from Proto-Germanic *hwammai (dative of *hwaz), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷósmey (dative of *kʷós).

Forms with short /a/ are generalised unstressed forms.

Pronunciation[edit]

• IPA^(key): /ʍɔːm/, /ʍoːm/, /ʍam/
• (northern or early) IPA^(key): /ʍɑːm/

Pronoun[edit]

whom (singular or plural, accusative and dative case, nominative who)

1. (interrogative) (to) who, whom (accusative or dative)
2. (relative) (to) who, whom (accusative or dative)

   • c. 1395, John Wycliffe, John Purvey [et al.], transl., Bible (Wycliffite Bible (later version), MS Lich 10.)‎^[2], published c. 1410, Joon 17:3, page 62v, column 1; republished as Wycliffe’s translation of the New Testament, Lichfield: Bill Endres, 2010:

     and þis is euerlaſtynge lijf .· þat þei knowen þee veri god aloone · ⁊ whom þou haſt ſent iheſu criſt

     Now this is eternal life, so they can know you, the true God alone, and Jesus Christ, who you have sent.

3. (relative) (to) whoever, whomever (accusative or dative)
4. (relative, uncommon) that (accusative, inanimate)
5. (indefinite, rare) (to) anyone, someone (usually accusative or dative)

Descendants[edit]

• English: whom
• Scots: wham

References[edit]

• “whōm, pron.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

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Thankfully, I have my mom and a small group of close friends who are there for me 24/7 and whom I can trust and depend on.

Christina Aguilera

ETYMOLOGY OF THE WORD WHOM

Old English hwām, dative of hwāwho.

PRONUNCIATION OF WHOM

GRAMMATICAL CATEGORY OF WHOM

Whom is a pronoun.

WHAT DOES WHOM MEAN IN ENGLISH?

Definition of whom in the English dictionary

The definition of whom in the dictionary is the objective form of who, used when who is not the subject of its own clause.

WORDS THAT RHYME WITH WHOM

TRANSLATION OF WHOM

Find out the translation of whom to 25 languages with our English multilingual translator.

TENDENCIES OF USE OF THE TERM «WHOM»

The term «whom» is very widely used and occupies the 5.151 position in our list of most widely used terms in the English dictionary.

Principal search tendencies and common uses of whom

FREQUENCY OF USE OF THE TERM «WHOM» OVER TIME

10 QUOTES WITH «WHOM»

Famous quotes and sentences with the word whom.

10 ENGLISH BOOKS RELATING TO «WHOM»

Discover the use of whom in the following bibliographical selection. Books relating to whom and brief extracts from same to provide context of its use in English literature.

10 NEWS ITEMS WHICH INCLUDE THE TERM «WHOM»

Find out what the national and international press are talking about and how the term whom is used in the context of the following news items.

REFERENCE

« EDUCALINGO. Whom [online]. Available <https://educalingo.com/en/dic-en/whom>. Apr 2023 ».

• In analyzing the “whom” sentence I pointed out that the rhetorical emphasis natural to an interrogative pronoun lost something by its form variability (who, whose, whom).

  Chapter 7. Language as a Historical Product: Drift

• ‘No, no,’ exclaimed the dying Principal, ‘it is not «I know _in_ whom» but «I know _whom_»; I cannot have even the little word «_in_» between me and Christ.

  A Handful of Stars Texts That Have Moved Great Minds

• Be it so: you cannot be too noble, and your train cannot be too great; but see to it that your train is of vassals whom you serve and feed, not merely of slaves who serve and feed you; and that the multitude which obeys you is of those whom you have comforted, not oppressed, —whom you have redeemed, not led into captivity.

  Sesame and Lilies. Lecture II.-Lilies: Of Queens’ Gardens

• Oh! Willoughby, how little have you known the woman whom you have abandoned, �whom you have undone!

  Isabella. A Novel

• «The (_a_) (2) _unprecedented_ impudence of our youthful representative reminds us forcibly of the _unblushing and_ (54) (40) _remarkable_ effrontery (_c_) (which (26) he almost succeeds in equalling) of the Member for St. Alban’s, whom our (_b_) (1) _neophyte_ (_b_) (1) _alluded to_, in the last speech with which he favoured _those whom_ (47_a_) _he represents_, (19) as his pattern and example.»

  How to Write Clearly Rules and Exercises on English Composition

• Had I been a man of many words, a meddler, a busy body, I had not acted thus kindly by him; but now I will tell you a tale which befell me, that you may be well assured I am a man sparing of speech in whom is no forwardness and a very different person from those six

  The Book of The Thousand Nights And A Night

• And he said, I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end shall be: for they are a very froward generation, children in whom is no faith.

  Think Progress » Cheney: If You Don’t Support Everything I Do, You Aren’t Serious About Terrorism

• Take thee Joshua … a man in whom is the spirit, and lay thine hand upon him — A strong testimony is here borne to the personality of the divine Spirit — the imposition of hands was an ancient ceremony.

  Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible

• Those that design honestly, that are really what they profess to be, are Israelites indeed, in whom is no guile.

  Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume III (Job to Song of Solomon)

• The rock of ages, in whom is everlasting strength, would be his rock, his strength in the inner man, both for doing and suffering.

  Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume III (Job to Song of Solomon)