Nearby Words

whom

[hoom] Example Sentences Origin

whom

[hoom]
pronoun
1.
the objective case of who: Whom did you call? Of whom are you speaking? With whom did you stay?
2.
the dative case of who: You gave whom the book?

Origin:
before 900; Middle English; Old English hwām, dative of hwā who

who, whom (see usage note at who).


See who.

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Whom is always a great word to know.
So is ort. Does it mean:
a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.
a scrap or morsel of food left at a meal.
Example Sentences
  • It was considered a wonderful gift to give anyone for whom you cared.
  • His first wife, whom he abandoned, described him as amoral.
  • The panel is composed of hundreds of readers whom we contact about consumer and shopping topics.
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Dictionary.com Unabridged

who

[hoo]
pronoun; possessive whose; objective whom.
1.
what person or persons?: Who did it?
2.
(of a person) of what character, origin, position, importance, etc.: Who does she think she is?
3.
the person that or any person that (used relatively to represent a specified or implied antecedent): It was who you thought.
4.
(used relatively in restrictive and nonrestrictive clauses to represent a specified antecedent, the antecedent being a person or sometimes an animal or personified thing): Any kid who wants to can learn to swim.
5.
Archaic. the person or persons who.
6.
as who should say, Archaic. in a manner of speaking; so to say.

Origin:
before 900; Middle English; Old English hwā; cognate with Old High German hwer, Gothic hwas, Latin quis

who, whom (see usage note at the current entry).


The typical usage guide statement about the choice between who and whom says that the choice must be determined by the grammar of the clause within which this pronoun occurs. Who is the appropriate form for the subject of a sentence or clause: Who are you? The voters who elected him have not been disappointed. EXPANDWhom is the objective form: Whom did you ask? To whom are we obliged for this assistance? This method of selecting the appropriate form is generally characteristic of formal writing and is usually followed in edited prose
In most speech and writing, however, since who or whom often occurs at the beginning of the sentence or clause, there is a strong tendency to choose who no matter what its function. Even in edited prose, who occurs at least ten times as often as whom, regardless of grammatical function. Only when it directly follows a preposition is whom more likely to occur than who: Mr. Erickson is the man to whom you should address your request.
In natural informal speech, whom is quite rare. Who were you speaking to? is far more likely to occur than the “correct” To whom were you speaking? or Whom were you speaking to? However, the notion that whom is somehow more “correct” or elegant than who leads some speakers to hypercorrect uses of whom: Whom are you? The person whom is in charge has left the office. See also than.

COLLAPSE
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2012.
Cite This Source Link To whom
Collins
World English Dictionary
whom (huːm)
 
pron
the objective form of who, used when who is not the subject of its own clause: whom did you say you had seen?; he can't remember whom he saw
 
usage  It was formerly considered correct to use whom whenever the objective form of who was required. This is no longer thought to be necessary and the objective form who is now commonly used, even in formal writing: there were several people there who he had met before. Who cannot be used directly after a preposition -- the preposition is usually displaced, as in the man (who) he sold his car to. In formal writing whom is preferred in sentences like these: the man to whom he sold his car. There are some types of sentence in which who cannot be used: the refugees, many of whom were old and ill, were allowed across the border

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

who
O.E. hwa, from P.Gmc. *khwas, *khwes, *khwo (cf. O.S. hwe, Dan. hvo, Swed. vem, O.Fris. hwa, Du. wie, O.H.G. hwer, Ger. wer, Goth. hvo (fem.) "who"), from PIE *qwos/*qwes (cf. Skt. kah "who, which," Avestan ko, Hittite kuish "who," L. qui, quae, quod "who, which, what," Lith. kas "who," O.C.S. kuto,
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Rus. kto "who," O.Ir. ce, Welsh pwy "who").

whom
O.E. hwam, the dative form of hwa (see who).
COLLAPSE
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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