how

adv

1. (interrogative, not-comparable)To what degree or extent.

   “How often do you practice?”

   “The gauge indicated how hot the oven was.”

   “How soon can I see the doctor?”

   “No matter how early I came down, I would find him on the veranda, smoking cigarettes, or otherwise his man would be there with a message to say that his master would shortly join me if I would kindly wait.”

   “How damaged is her self-esteem?”

2. (interrogative, not-comparable)In what manner

   “Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too.[…]But as a foundation for analysis it is highly subjective: it rests on difficult decisions about what counts as a territory, what counts as output and how to value it. Indeed, economists are still tweaking it.”

3. (interrogative, not-comparable)In what manner:

   “How do you solve this puzzle? –Sorry, I can't remember how.”

   “How else can we get this finished?”

   “She showed him how to do it.”

4. (interrogative, not-comparable)In what manner:

   “How should I know whether he likes raisins or not? Ask him!”

5. (interrogative, not-comparable)In what manner:

   “How are you fixed for money?”

   “How did you vote in the last election?”

   “How do you like it here?”

   “How do you sell your brandy? We sell it by the gallon, and not by the bottle.”

   “How does God appear in these religions? Hinduism has a thousand faces for God, some likable, some horrible. You can pick and choose your preferred image. Buddhism does not even have an image of God, but concentrates on man.”

6. (interrogative, not-comparable)In what manner:

   “How the stock market interprets events has real consequences.”

   “A heap of stamps? Yes. Stamps they were indeed, hundreds of penny Queen's Heads neatly mounted on the original sheets. "Good God!" exclaimed Mr. Erskine as he turned to Mr. Sackville, "how am I to take this, sir?" said he severely. "Where are the real stamps? Were they ever inside, ever in your possession at all? If it is a joke, it is a very poor one."”

7. (interrogative, not-comparable)In what manner:

   “"How art thou called? Thy name make known; Thy father's name and family,—tell me thy father's and thine own."”

   “Salutation—How does one address the recipient; what titles, greetings, and honorifics are preferred; how does one manage the problem of unknown gender;[…]”

8. (interrogative, not-comparable)In what manner:

   “Shal. How a score of ewes now? Sil. Thereafter as they be: a score of good ewes may be worth ten pounds.”

9. (interrogative, not-comparable)In what state or condition.

   “How are you?”

   “How was your vacation?”

   “How's the new apartment? — The new apartment is great!”

10. (not-comparable)In the manner in which.

    “I said it exactly how he said it.”

11. (not-comparable)In any manner in which; in whatever way; however.

    “People should be free to live how they want.”

12. (nonstandard, not-comparable, relative)In which.

    “The way how you walk is funny.”

13. (not-comparable)Used as a modifier to indicate surprise, delight, or other strong feelings in an exclamation.

    “How very interesting!”

    “How wonderful it was to receive your invitation.”

    “Those were such happy times and not so long ago / How I wondered where they'd gone”

    “How England had to fight for victory against this steely Denmark with an inspired keeper in Kasper Schmeichel, especially after conceding their first goal of the tournament to Mikkel Damsgaard's stunning free-kick after 30 minutes.”

conj

1. (informal)That, the fact that.

   “She told me how her father was a doctor.”

   ““There’s this real Al Capone fear that they’re going to get our guys, not on marijuana, but on something else,” Mr. Edson said, referring to how Capone was eventually charged with tax evasion rather than criminal activity.”

intj

1. (US, dialectal)What?, pardon?
2. A greeting, used in representations of Native American speech.

noun

1. The means by which something is accomplished.

   “I am not interested in the why, but in the how.”

   “It is an a posteriori argument, evincing the fact, but not the how.”

   “A wham-bam caper flick, efficiently directed by Roger Donaldson, that fancifully revisits the mysterious whos and speculative hows of a 1971 London bank heist.”

2. (dialectal)An artificial barrow or tumulus; in later folklore, associated with fairies.

   “Fianlly, as regards the places in which these rites and mysteries may have been held, certain writers believe them to have been the "Fairy Hills" or "howes" in various parts of Scotland.”

   “The fairy feast inside the howe (and this barrow is hill-sized) reminds one of nothing so much as a tale in the Icelandic Eyrbyggia saga, written in the mid thirteenth century.”

   “Then, the story goes, a certain man plundered the hoard in that immemorial howe[.]”

3. (dialectal)In northern England, a low hill.
4. radiotelephony clear-code word for the letter H.

name

1. (countable, uncountable)A surname.
2. (countable, uncountable)A town in Oconto County, Wisconsin, United States, named after Calvin F. How Jr.
3. (countable, uncountable)A hamlet in Hayton parish, City of Carlisle district, Cumbria, England (OS grid ref NY5056).