What Meaning

/wɒt/
A1

Definition, CEFR level A1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Listen pronunciation

detWhich, especially which of an open-ended set of possibilities.

detWhich.

I just don't know what to say.
That was probably what influenced their decision.
Afterwards she was sorry for what she'd said.
CEFR Practice Quiz
Could you please tell me ____ time the important meeting starts tomorrow?
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
____ are you planning to do during your summer holiday this year to relax and enjoy the beautiful weather today?

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kʷ- Proto-Indo-European *kʷís Proto-Germanic *hwat Proto-West Germanic *hwat Old English hwæt Middle English what English what From Middle English what, from Old English hwæt (“what”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwat, from Proto-Germanic *hwat (“what”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷód (“what”), neuter form of *kʷós (“who”). Cognate with Scots what, whit (“what”), North Frisian wat (“what”), Saterland Frisian wat (“what”), West Frisian wat (“what”), Dutch wat (“what”), Low German wat (“what”), German was (“what”), Danish hvad (“what”), Norwegian Bokmål hva (“what”), Swedish vad (“what”), Norwegian Nynorsk kva (“what”), Icelandic hvað (“what”), Latin quod (“what, which”). Its use as a particle of contradiction or objection in colloquial Singaporean English is analogous to Cantonese 喎 /㖞 (wo³, etymology 2, sense 3). It is possible that this was historically reinforced by the dated use of what as a sentence-final question tag in British English.

"Everyone always asks what my advice is, and my advice is don’t overintellectualize your art." — 2022 October 14, Justin Curto, “The 1975’s Matty Healy Prefers Writing Lyrics He’s Afraid Of”, in Vulture, archived from the original on 18 Oct 2022:
"He crammed what little food was left, into the breast of his grey jacket." — 1860 December – 1861 August, Charles Dickens, chapter III, in Great Expectations […], volume I, London: Chapman and Hall, […], published October 1861, →OCLC, page 40:
""I'll tell it ye from the beginning," he said. "My time is from ten at night to six in the morning. At eleven there was a fight at the 'White Hart'; but bar that all was quiet enough on the beat. At one o'clock it began to rain, and I met Harry Murcher—him who has the Holland Grove beat—and we stood together at the corner of Henrietta Street a-talkin'. Presently—maybe about two or a little after—I thought I would take a look round and see that all was right down the Brixton Road. It was precious dirty and lonely. Not a soul did I meet all the way down, though a cab or two went past me. I was a strollin' down, thinkin' between ourselves how uncommon handy a four of gin hot would be, when suddenly the glint of a light caught my eye in the window of that same house. Now, I knew that them two houses in Lauriston Gardens was empty on account of him that owns them who won't have the drains seen to, though the very last tenant what lived in one of them died o' typhoid fever. I was knocked all in a heap therefore at seeing a light in the window, and I suspected as something was wrong. When I got to the door——"" — 1887, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, A Study in Scarlet, page 60:
"That’s her; that’s the thing what has stole his heart from me." — 1902, J. M. Barrie, The Admirable Crichton:
"A diploma in the waiting room revealed Big Boy to be a member of The American Association of Medical Hydrology, whatever that might be. Furthermore he was a deacon of the Royal Aryan Society for Positive Christianity and as such was privileged to throw in divine healing without extra charge. That went right along with the three-dollar treatment for a touch of the astral power and a short lecture on the latent powers possessed by all of us. “Pow-wers what vassly transent our normaller ones,” was just how Big Boy put it." — 1949 November, Nelson Algren, “Rumors of Evening”, in The Man with the Golden Arm: A Novel, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday & Company, →OCLC, page 77:

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CEFR Practice Quiz
Could you please tell me ____ time the important meeting starts tomorrow?
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
____ are you planning to do during your summer holiday this year to relax and enjoy the beautiful weather today?

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