Word.ws English Dictionary

what can you do

what can you do phrase: a rhetorical question expressing that an undesirable situation is inevitable.

Phrase

what can you do?

  1. A rhetorical question expressing that an undesirable situation is inevitable.
    • Near-synonyms: what can I say, what is one to do; it is what it is
    • I bend my head over the paper, screw up my eyes, trying to read what it says, but it's no use, I can hardly see to read now, the print's so small that I can't read much except the headlines. Oh, well, what can you do?2017, Carl Frode Tiller, Encircling: Book 2

Synonyms of what can you do

Forms of what can you do

alternative formwhat can one do
alternative formwhat are you going to do

Questions about what can you do

What does what can you do mean?
What can you do means a rhetorical question expressing that an undesirable situation is inevitable.
What part of speech is what can you do?
What can you do is a phrase.

Words near what can you do in the dictionary

  1. what are your pronouns
  2. what can I do you for
  3. what can I say
  4. what can I tell you
  5. what can one do
  6. what can you do
  7. what cheer
  8. what color is the sun in your world
  9. what color is your Bugatti
  10. what colour is your Bugatti
  11. what comes around goes around

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: what can you do (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.

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