2
CONJ
You use
who
after certain words, especially verbs and adjectives, to introduce a clause where you talk about the identity of a person or a group of people. □
3
PRON
You use
who
at the beginning of a relative clause when specifying the person or group of people you are talking about or when giving more information about them. □
whoa / h woʊ /
1 EXCLAM Whoa is a command that you give to a horse to slow down or stop.
2
EXCLAM
You can say
whoa
to someone who is talking to you, to indicate that you think they are talking too fast or assuming things that may not be true. [INFORMAL
] □
who'd /huː d, huːd/
1Who'd is the usual spoken form of 'who had', especially when 'had' is an auxiliary verb.
2Who'd is a spoken form of 'who would'.
who|dun|nit /huːdʌ n I t/ (whodunnits ) also whodunit N‑COUNT A whodunnit is a novel, film, or play which is about a murder and which does not tell you who the murderer is until the end. [INFORMAL ]
who|ever /huːe və r /
1
CONJ
You use
whoever
to refer to someone when their identity is not yet known. □
2
CONJ
You use
whoever
to indicate that the actual identity of the person who does something will not affect a situation. □
3
ADV
You use
whoever
in questions as an emphatic way of saying 'who', usually when you are surprised about something. [EMPHASIS
] □
whole ◆◆◆ /hoʊ l/ (wholes )
1
QUANT
If you refer to
the whole of
something, you mean all of it. □ [+
2
N‑COUNT
[usu sing] A
whole
is a single thing which contains several different parts. □
3
ADJ
[v-link ADJ
] If something is
whole
, it is in one piece and is not broken or damaged. □
4
ADV
[ADV
adj] You use
whole
to emphasize what you are saying. [INFORMAL
, EMPHASIS
] □
5
PHRASE
If you refer to something
as a whole
, you are referring to it generally and as a single unit. □