whose

From Middle English whos, from Old English hwæs, from Proto-Germanic *hwes, genitive case of *hwaz (“who”) *hwat (“what”).

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /huːz/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːz
• Homophones: who's, whos

whose

1. (interrogative) Of whom, belonging to whom; which person's or people's.

   Whose (wallet) is this?

   We should buy a house. ~ With whose money?

   For whose benefit are you acting.?

2. (relative) Of whom, belonging to whom.

   This is the man whose dog caused the accident.

   (= This man's dog caused the accident.)

   Venus, whose sister is Serena, won the latest championship.

   I dedicate this award to my parents, without whose help I wouldn't have made it this far.

   The victim was a young student, both of whose eyes were missing.

   He asked whose the umbrella was.

   • 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 5, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC:

     The most rapid and most seductive transition in all human nature is that which attends the palliation of a ravenous appetite. […] Can those harmless but refined fellow-diners be the selfish cads whose gluttony and personal appearance so raised your contemptuous wrath on your arrival?

3. (relative) Of which, belonging to which.

   We saw several houses whose roofs were falling off.

   (= The roofs were falling off several houses that we saw.)

whose

1. (interrogative) That or those of whom or belonging to whom.

   Several people have lost their suitcases. Whose have you found?

2. (relative) That or those of whom or belonging to whom.

   This car is blocking the way, but Mr Smith, whose it is, will be here shortly.

   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 27:23:

     For there stood by me this night the angel of God, whose I am, and whom I serve,

   • 1833, Tait's Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 3, page 637 (Google Books view):

     If he starts it on another man's lands, and kills it there, it belongs to the owner of the land; but if he start game on one man's lands, and pursue it to those of another, and kill it there, it is neither the property of the man on whose lands it is started, nor of him on whose it is killed, but belongs to the killer.

   • 1895, Library Journal, Volume 20, page 397 (Google Books view):

     The notes on authors are extremely brilliant and incisive, not always in good perspective and sometimes freaky in their wit, as, for instance, the reference to Mrs. Holmes, of whose books it is said, "The secret of their long popularity has never been divulged by their readers," and Mrs. Harris, of whose it is said, "To a lively mind they should be conducive of profound sleep," which, whatever its faults, is by no means true of "Rutledge."

whose

1. Misspelling of who's.

• Howes, Howse, howes, showe, whoes

whose

1. (chiefly Late Middle English) alternative form of whos (“whose”, genitive)