relative pronoun

American  

noun

• relative pronouns
  plural

1. one of the pronouns who, whom, which, what, their compounds with -ever or -soever, or that used as the subordinating word to introduce a subordinate clause, especially such a pronoun referring to an antecedent.

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Commonly Confused

See who.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• relative pronouns
  plural

Etymology

Origin of relative pronoun

First recorded in 1520–30

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

relative pronoun

The English language adds more physical weight and hard sound, with the audibility of the relative pronoun, "that", and the predominance of masculine line-endings contributory factors.

From The Guardian ● Feb. 11, 2013

Antecedent—That to which a relative pronoun or a relative clause refers.

From Punctuation A Primer of Information about the Marks of Punctuation and their Use Both Grammatically and Typographically by Frederick W. (Frederick William) Hamilton

The relative pronoun can be shown to have been in the first instance a demonstrative; indeed, we can still use that in English in a relative sense.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 12, Slice 3 "Gordon, Lord George" to "Grasses" by Various

But, as a relative pronoun, 18; with a negative, 42; with a dependent clause, 105; to introduce two succeeding statements, 105.

From Practical Grammar and Composition by Thomas Wood

A relative pronoun proper did not exist in the oldest periods of the Germanic languages, and accordingly the separate languages expressed it in various ways.

From A Middle High German Primer Third Edition by Joseph Wright