Plural of 'how,' referring to methods or ways of doing something; manners of proceeding.
From Old English 'hū' meaning 'in what way.' The plural form 'hows' developed alongside 'whys' and 'wheres' to describe multiple methods or explanations, though it's less commonly used than its related question words.
While we easily accept 'whys' and 'wheres' as nouns, 'hows' sounds unusual because 'how' more often functions as an adverb. This grammatical quirk shows how some question words resist becoming countable nouns in everyday speech.
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