what

Pronunciation: [hwɒt]

Average Rank: 72

Chinese Translation (中文翻译)
Source: ECDICT

pron. 什么 interj. 怎么, 多么 a. 什么的 adv. 到什么程度

Detailed Explanations:
  • pron., a., & adv. As an interrogative pronoun, used in asking
  • questions regarding either persons or things; as, what is this? what
  • did you say? what poem is this? what child is lost?
  • pron., a., & adv. As an exclamatory word: -- (a) Used absolutely
  • or independently; -- often with a question following.
  • pron., a., & adv. Used adjectively, meaning how remarkable, or
  • how great; as, what folly! what eloquence! what courage!
  • pron., a., & adv. Sometimes prefixed to adjectives in an
  • adverbial sense, as nearly equivalent to how; as, what happy boys!
  • pron., a., & adv. As a relative pronoun
  • pron., a., & adv. Used substantively with the antecedent
  • suppressed, equivalent to that which, or those [persons] who, or those
  • [things] which; -- called a compound relative.
  • pron., a., & adv. Used adjectively, equivalent to the . . .
  • which; the sort or kind of . . . which; rarely, the . . . on, or at,
  • which.
  • pron., a., & adv. Used adverbially in a sense corresponding to
  • the adjectival use; as, he picked what good fruit he saw.
  • pron., a., & adv. Whatever; whatsoever; what thing soever; --
  • used indefinitely.
  • pron., a., & adv. Used adverbially, in part; partly; somewhat;
  • -- with a following preposition, especially, with, and commonly with
  • repetition.
  • n. Something; thing; stuff.
  • interrog. adv. Why? For what purpose? On what account?
ECDICT Dictionary Data
Collins Rating:
Oxford 3000
Difficulty: BASIC
Exam Tags: zk gk

Word Frequency Rankings

Wikipedia
#144

Formal, encyclopedic, and academic usage

Percentile: 98.6% (Top 98.6% most frequent)
98.6%

Out of 10,000 words in the Wikipedia corpus

TV & Movie Scripts
#11

Conversational and colloquial usage

Percentile: 99.9% (Top 99.9% most frequent)
99.9%

Out of 10,000 words in the TV & Movie Scripts corpus

Project Gutenberg
#60

Classical and literary usage

Percentile: 99.4% (Top 99.4% most frequent)
99.4%

Out of 10,000 words in the Project Gutenberg corpus

Insights

This word appears in 3 corpus/corpora, showing its usage across academic, conversational, and literary contexts.

Usage pattern: Most frequent in Wikipedia, making it particularly important for that context.