Word.ws English Dictionary

who wants to know

who wants to know phrase: a retort to a question posed by a stranger, when one does not want to either confirm or deny.

Phrase

who wants to know?

  1. (idiomatic) A retort to a question posed by a stranger, when one does not want to either confirm or deny.
    • Albert: Adam and Eve on a raft! Is that Eunice Carruthers?
      Eunice: Who wants to know?
      Albert: Al's Diner! You waitressed for me back in '78, '79! I'd never forget that pretty face!
      Eunice: Well, Mr. Ramsey! How do you like that? I didn't recognize you without your apron!1998, Alison Bechdel, Split-Level Dykes to Watch Out For,, page 119

Synonyms of who wants to know

Questions about who wants to know

What does who wants to know mean?
Who wants to know means a retort to a question posed by a stranger, when one does not want to either confirm or deny.
What part of speech is who wants to know?
Who wants to know is a phrase.

Words near who wants to know in the dictionary

  1. who pays the piper calls the tune
  2. who put a quarter in you
  3. who shot John
  4. who so
  5. who took the jam out of your doughnut
  6. who wants to know
  7. who was your servant last year
  8. who watches the watchers
  9. who whom
  10. who would have guessed
  11. who would have known

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: who wants to know (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-who wants to know.wav.

Cite this entry: “who wants to know.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/who_wants_to_know. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.