where
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Alternative forms
Etymology
From Middle English wher, from Old English hwǣr (“where”, literally “at what place”), from Proto-Germanic *hwar (“where”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷo- (interrogative pronoun).
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation) enPR: hwâr, wâr; IPA(key): /ʍɛə/, /wɛə/
Audio (UK, wine–whine merger): (file) Audio: (file) - (General American) enPR: hwâr, wâr; IPA(key): /ʍɛɚ/, /wɛɚ/
- (Canada) IPA(key): [weːɹ], [ʍeːɹ]
Audio (US, without the wine–whine merger): (file) Audio (US, wine–whine merger): (file) - Homophones: ware, wear (wine–whine merger)
- Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)
Conjunction
where
- In, at or to which place or situation.
- 2013 July-August, Henry Petroski, “Geothermal Energy”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4:
- Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.
- 1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 122:
- Through the open front door ran Jessamy, down the steps to where Kitto was sitting at the bottom with the pram beside him.
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:where.
- I've forgotten where I was in this book, but it was probably around chapter four.
- I hardly knew where I was going.
- Synonym: (to which place; archaic or literary) whither
- In, at or to the place (that) or a place (that).
- Stay where you are.
- Go back where you came from.
- Let's go where it's warmer.
- In, at or to any place (that); wherever; anywhere.
- Please sit where you like.
- Their job is to go where they are called.
- In a position, case, etc. in which; if.
- You cannot be too careful where explosives are involved.
- Where no provision under this Act is applicable, the case shall be decided in accordance with the customary practices.
- While on the contrary; although; whereas.
- 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The life and death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
- And flight and die is death destroying death; Where fearing dying pays death servile breath.
- July 18 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Dark Knight Rises
- Where the Joker preys on our fears of random, irrational acts of terror, Bane has an all-consuming, dictatorial agenda that’s more stable and permanent, a New World Order that’s been planned out with the precision of a military coup.
- 2013 June 14, Jonathan Freedland, “Obama's once hip brand is now tainted”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 18:
- Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined. Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet.
- For more quotations using this term, see Citations:where.
- Where Susy has trouble coloring inside the lines, Johnny has already mastered shading.
- (informal) In which.
- Show me an example where it happened that way.
- A function is two variables are related.
- (informal) That.
- I read where they caught the guy.
Translations
at or in which place
|
to which place or situation
|
wherever
|
legal: in the situation in which
Adverb
where (not comparable)
- Interrogative adverb, used in either a direct or indirect question: in, at or to what place.
- Where are you?
- Where are you going?
- He asked where I grew up.
- (with certain prepositions) What place.
- Where did you come from?
- Where are you off to?
- Where are you at? (informal)
- (informal) where are.
- Where you at?
- Where you going?
- In what situation.
- Where would we be without our parents?
- (relative) In, at or to which.
- This is the place where we first met.
- He is looking for a house where he can have a complete office.
- That's the place where we went on holiday.
- Here's a picture of York, where I was born. (non-defining)
- (fused relative) The place in, at or to which.
- He lives within five miles of where he was born.
- This is a photo of where I went on holiday.
Translations
at what place; to what place; from what place
|
at or in what place
|
to what place
|
in what situation
|
the place in which
|
- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
|
Noun
where (plural wheres)
- The place in which something happens.
- A good article will cover the who, the what, the when, the where, the why and the how.
- 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 19:
- Finding the nymph a sleepe in secret wheare
Translations
the place in which something happens
|
Derived terms
all parts of speech
- anywhere
- before one knows where one is
- black where it counts
- boldly go where no man has gone before
- credit where credit's due
- don't get your honey where you make your money
- don't get your meat where you get your bread
- don't shit where you eat
- elsewhere
- every where
- everywhere
- every which where
- fools rush in where angels fear to tread
- from where one is sitting
- from where one sits
- give credit where credit is due
- go back to where you came from
- go hunting where the ducks are
- gold is where you find it
- home is where the heart is
- home is where you hang your hat
- hunt where the ducks are
- hunt where the ducks were
- know where one stands
- know where the bodies are buried
- let the chips fall where they may
- let the dice fall where they may
- let the door hit you where the good Lord split you
- meet someone where they are
- not know where to turn
- put one's money where one's mouth is
- start from where you are
- tell someone where to get off
- tell someone where to shove it
- there's more where that came from
- this is where I came in
- this is where we came in
- whereabouts
- whereafter
- whereagainst
- wherealong
- where are the snows of yesteryear
- where are the toilets
- where are we
- where are we going
- where are you
- where are you from
- where are your parents
- whereas
- whereat
- where away
- whereby
- where can I find a hotel
- where does it hurt
- where does this bus go
- where does this train go
- where do I sign up
- where do you live
- where do you live at
- wherefore
- wherefrom
- where got
- where have you been
- where I come from
- wherein
- whereinto
- where is the lie
- where is the toilet
- where it counts
- where it's at
- whereness
- wherenot
- whereof
- whereon
- where one lives
- whereover
- wheresoever
- where someone is coming from
- where someone lives
- wherethan
- where the heck
- where the puck is going
- where the puck is heading
- where there is a will
- where there is a will there is a way
- where there's a will there's a way
- where there's muck there's brass
- where there's no sense there's no feeling
- where the shoe pinches
- where the sun doesn't shine
- where the sun don't shine
- wherethrough
- whereto
- wheretoward
- whereunder
- whereuntil
- whereunto
- whereupon
- wherever
- wherewith
- wherewithal
- wherewithin
- where you at
- where you stand depends on where you sit
- write-what-where
- you don't get your nookie where you get your cookies
Descendants
- Hawaiian Creole: wea
Anagrams
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