what's what
what's what noun: precisely what the situation really is or what the facts truly are; the true state of things.
Noun
what's what (uncountable)
- Precisely what the situation really is or what the facts truly are; the true state of things.
- Besides, he had some qualities which fix
Middle-aged ladies even more than young:
The former know what's what; while new-fledged chicks
Know little more of Love than what is sung
In rhymes . . .1823, Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto the Tenth - "Well, I know what's what, too. I know what you are for one thing." He chuckled. "I've got your number all right."1918, P. G. Wodehouse, chapter 18, in Piccadilly Jim
- Besides, he had some qualities which fix
Examples of what's what in a sentence
- Anyway, he's a wise old bird and may hand you a pointer or two about what's what in New York.1921, Samuel Hopkins Adams, chapter 17, in Success:
- Sometimes it takes a scruffy underdog to show the professionals what's what.2011 August 15, Sonia Van Gilder Cooke, “Sangat TV”, in Time:
Forms of what's what
| alternative form | what is what |
|---|---|
| alternative form | what was what |
Questions about what's what
- What does what's what mean?
- What's what means precisely what the situation really is or what the facts truly are; the true state of things.
- How do you use what's what in a sentence?
- Anyway, he's a wise old bird and may hand you a pointer or two about what's what in New York.
- What part of speech is what's what?
- What's what is a noun.
Words near what's what in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: what's what (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-what's what.ogg.
Cite this entry: “what's what.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/what%27s_what. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.