Definitions for which
ʰwɪtʃ, wɪtʃwhich

Wiktionary(2.60 / 12 votes)Rate this definition:

1. whichnoun

   An occurrence of the word which.

   Etymology: hwilc, from Proto-Germanic , the former being the stem of . Cognates include German welcher, Dutch welk and Old Norse hvílíkr.

2. whichpronoun

   Who; whom; what (of those mentioned or implied)

   Etymology: hwilc, from Proto-Germanic , the former being the stem of . Cognates include German welcher, Dutch welk and Old Norse hvílíkr.

Webster Dictionary(2.40 / 5 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Whichadjective

   of what sort or kind; what; what a; who

   Etymology: [OE. which, whilk, AS. hwilc, hwylc, hwelc, from the root of hw who + lc body; hence properly, of what sort or kind; akin to OS. hwilik which, OFries. hwelik, D. welk, G. welch, OHG. welh, hwelh, Icel. hvlkr, Dan. & Sw. hvilken, Goth. hwileiks, hwleiks; cf. L. qualis. . See Who, and Like, a., and cf. Such.]

2. Whichadjective

   a interrogative pronoun, used both substantively and adjectively, and in direct and indirect questions, to ask for, or refer to, an individual person or thing among several of a class; as, which man is it? which woman was it? which is the house? he asked which route he should take; which is best, to live or to die? See the Note under What, pron., 1

   Etymology: [OE. which, whilk, AS. hwilc, hwylc, hwelc, from the root of hw who + lc body; hence properly, of what sort or kind; akin to OS. hwilik which, OFries. hwelik, D. welk, G. welch, OHG. welh, hwelh, Icel. hvlkr, Dan. & Sw. hvilken, Goth. hwileiks, hwleiks; cf. L. qualis. . See Who, and Like, a., and cf. Such.]

3. Which

   a relative pronoun, used esp. in referring to an antecedent noun or clause, but sometimes with reference to what is specified or implied in a sentence, or to a following noun or clause (generally involving a reference, however, to something which has preceded). It is used in all numbers and genders, and was formerly used of persons

   Etymology: [OE. which, whilk, AS. hwilc, hwylc, hwelc, from the root of hw who + lc body; hence properly, of what sort or kind; akin to OS. hwilik which, OFries. hwelik, D. welk, G. welch, OHG. welh, hwelh, Icel. hvlkr, Dan. & Sw. hvilken, Goth. hwileiks, hwleiks; cf. L. qualis. . See Who, and Like, a., and cf. Such.]

4. Which

   a compound relative or indefinite pronoun, standing for any one which, whichever, that which, those which, the . . . which, and the like; as, take which you will

   Etymology: [OE. which, whilk, AS. hwilc, hwylc, hwelc, from the root of hw who + lc body; hence properly, of what sort or kind; akin to OS. hwilik which, OFries. hwelik, D. welk, G. welch, OHG. welh, hwelh, Icel. hvlkr, Dan. & Sw. hvilken, Goth. hwileiks, hwleiks; cf. L. qualis. . See Who, and Like, a., and cf. Such.]

Chambers 20th Century Dictionary(3.50 / 2 votes)Rate this definition:

1. Which

   hwich, interrog. pron. what one of a number?—also used adjectively.—rel. pron. (obs.) who, whom: now used of things only.—prons. Whichev′er, Whichsoev′er, every one which: whether one or other.—(obs.) Which...he, who; Which...his, whose—surviving in the vulgar use of which as a mere introductory word; Which is which? which is the one, which is the other? a common phrase denoting inability to decide between two or more things.—The which (obs.), which. [A.S. hwilc, hwelc, from hwí, instrumental case of hwá, who, and líc, like; Goth. hwei-leiks, Ger. welch, welcher; L. qualis. Cf. Such and Each.]

Editors Contribution(0.00 / 0 votes)Rate this definition:

1. which

   A relative pronoun.

   The company which released the new software were happy to open-source the code for it to be improved.

   Submitted by MaryC on April 8, 2020  

British National Corpus

1. Spoken Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'which' in Spoken Corpus Frequency: #30

2. Written Corpus Frequency

   Rank popularity for the word 'which' in Written Corpus Frequency: #80

How to pronounce which?

1. Alex

   US English

   David

   US English

   Mark

   US English

   Daniel

   British

   Libby

   British

   Mia

   British

   Karen

   Australian

   Hayley

   Australian

   Natasha

   Australian

   Veena

   Indian

   Priya

   Indian

   Neerja

   Indian

   Zira

   US English

   Oliver

   British

   Wendy

   British

   Fred

   US English

   Tessa

   South African

How to say which in sign language?

Numerology

1. Chaldean Numerology

   The numerical value of which in Chaldean Numerology is: 2

2. Pythagorean Numerology

   The numerical value of which in Pythagorean Numerology is: 6

Examples of which in a Sentence

1. Philip Mudd:

   Short term, they may win, the long-term solution for Iraq may not be a unified state if the only message they (Sunnis in Anbar province) get is either join ISIS, which will behead you, or support the government, which brings in rival Shia militias to oust the Sunnis. It's a very difficult political situation.

2. Charlie Baker:

   Until we have a chance to actually read the thing, which, I mean, we haven't even talked to our own lawyers about it yet, I'm not going to comment beyond that, but will just say that I'm glad that the Legislature moved forward on this, i'm glad this is something that was part of what they considered to be important to get done before the end of the session, but I can't speak to the specifics of this until we have a chance to review it.

3. Fumio Kishida:

   This is a very serious situation which doesn't just affect Europe, but also Asia and the whole world order.

4. Mayooran Elalingam:

   All of which is good news for deal-making in China.

5. Panayotis Gezerlis:

   There are many businesses which rely on Google servers and on Dropbox to share files.

Popularity rank by frequency of use