whoever

American  

[hoo-ev-er] / huˈɛv ər /

pronoun

possessive

whosever,

objective

whomever

1. whatever person; anyone that.

   Whoever did it should be proud. Ask whoever is there. Tell it to whomever you like.

2. no matter who.

   I won't do it, whoever asks.

3. who? what person? (used to express astonishment, disbelief, disdain, etc.).

   Whoever is that? Whoever told you such a thing?

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whoever British  

/ huːˈɛvə /

pronoun

1. any person who; anyone that

   whoever wants it can have it

2. no matter who

   I'll come round tomorrow, whoever may be here

3. an intensive form of who, used in questions

   whoever could have thought that?

4. informal an unknown or unspecified person

   give those to John, or Cathy, or whoever

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Etymology

Origin of whoever

Middle English word dating back to 1125–75; who, ever

Example Sentences

Whoever the new leader at Adobe is, they will have big shoes to fill.

From Barron's

We are not untouchable, but whoever plays us has to be on their game to beat us.

From BBC

This two-system format makes it difficult for any one party to win outright, which means whoever comes out top in an election usually has to govern in a coalition.

From BBC

The way I try to do things is to hear what my key decision-makers think of what is going on, and whoever plays 10 will obviously have an important role in that.

From BBC

At the Grammys, host Trevor Noah joked about insider trading on a popular subcategory of the prediction markets, known as mention markets: “If you had me saying ‘potato’ on Polymarket, you just made a ton of money, so congratulations Noah underscore 22, whoever that is.”

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• someone