whoever
Americanpronoun
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whomever,
objective
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whosever
possessive
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whatever person; anyone that.
Whoever did it should be proud. Ask whoever is there. Tell it to whomever you like.
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no matter who.
I won't do it, whoever asks.
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who? what person? (used to express astonishment, disbelief, disdain, etc.).
Whoever is that? Whoever told you such a thing?
pronoun
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any person who; anyone that
whoever wants it can have it
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no matter who
I'll come round tomorrow, whoever may be here
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an intensive form of who, used in questions
whoever could have thought that?
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informal an unknown or unspecified person
give those to John, or Cathy, or whoever
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of whoever
Middle English word dating back to 1125–75; see origin at who, ever
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Shareholders expect Howie to assert himself in a different way: Making sure that Abel, and whoever comes after him, remains in step with the culture his father built.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026
They get anchored to the diesel price, and the diesel price is set by whoever controls the water.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 15, 2026
I needed to adapt quickly to whoever was around me, and it often came at the expense of never really knowing myself.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 14, 2026
That person, whoever it was, spoke for a lot of us at the time.
From Salon ● Sep. 13, 2026
He thought Josie would huddle close and whisper conspiratorially about all their plans going forward—all the ways they’d outsmart Ivy and whoever else they were competing against.
From "The School for Whatnots" by Margaret Peterson Haddix
His attitude is essentially that the EU must take the outstretched hand of whomever the UK puts on the dancefloor to represent them.
From BBC ● Jun. 22, 2026
Hypocrisy allows parents, or the DoD, or whomever, to target the book itself.
From Salon ● Jun. 20, 2026
The only villain here is Bear, or perhaps it’s the idea that young men believe they should simply be able to have whomever they want.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 15, 2026
They must obey laws, but beyond that, social media companies can filter content as they like, and anything objectionable is the responsibility of whomever posted it.
From Barron's ● Mar. 25, 2026
She has presence, Eva Seiler or whomever she thought she was that night, and people pay attention to her.
From "Code Name Verity" by Elizabeth Wein
Clothes that show whosever wearing them in their best light, to show off their beauty but in a way that never degrades them in any way,” Griffiths said.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 23, 2023
The causes for such conduct are so common that very few men escape from their influence, and whosever does not resist them, falls and becomes a victim.
From A Plea for the Criminal Being a reply to Dr. Chapple's work: 'The Fertility of the Unfit', and an Attempt to explain the leading principles of Criminological and Reformatory Science by James Leslie Allan Kayll
Nom. who, Poss. whose, Obj. whom. " whoever, " whosever, " whomever. " whosoever, " whosesoever, " whomsoever.
From English Grammar in Familiar Lectures by Samuel Kirkham
God bless them, whosever those voices might be!
From Latitude 19 degree A Romance of the West Indies in the Year of Our Lord Eighteen Hundred and Twenty by Mrs. Schuyler Crowninshield
But whosever fault it was, it wasn't yours.'
From The Convert by Elizabeth Robins
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
