when

English Online Dictionary. What means when‎? What does when mean?

English

Alternative forms

• wen (eye dialect)

Etymology

From Middle English when(ne), whanne, from Old English hwonne, from Proto-West Germanic *hwannē, from Proto-West Germanic *hwan, from Proto-Germanic *hwan (“at what time, when”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷis (interrogative base).

Cognate with Dutch wanneer (“when”) and wen (“when, if”), Low German wannehr (“when”), wann (“when”) and wenn (“if, when”), German wann (“when”) and wenn (“when, if”), Gothic 𐍈𐌰𐌽 (ƕan, “when, how”), Latin quandō (“when”). More at who.

Interjection sense: a playful misunderstanding of "say when" (i.e. say something / speak up when you want me to stop) as "say [the word] when".

Pronunciation

• (General American) enPR: hwĕn, wĕn, IPA^(key): /ʍɛn/, /wɛn/
  • (pin–pen merger) IPA^(key): /ʍɪn/, /wɪn/
• (Ireland, Scotland) enPR: hwĕn, IPA^(key): /ʍɛn/
• (Received Pronunciation) enPR: wĕn, IPA^(key): /wɛn/
• Rhymes: -ɛn
• Homophones: wen (wine–whine merger); win (wine–whine merger, pin–pen merger)

Adverb

when (not comparable)

1. (interrogative) At what time? At which time? Upon which occasion or circumstance? Used to introduce direct or indirect questions about time.
   1. (interrogative, Internet slang, often humorous) Used after a noun or noun phrase in isolation to express impatience with an anticipated future event.
2. At an earlier time and under different, usually less favorable, circumstances.

3. (relative) At which, on which, during which: often omitted or replaced with that.
4. (fused relative) The time at, on or during which.

5. (informal, in definitions or explanations) A circumstance or situation in which.

Translations

Conjunction

when

1. At (or as soon as) that time that; at the (or any and every) time that; if.
2. During the time that; at the time of the action of the following clause or participle phrase.
3. At what time; at which time.
4. Since; given the fact that; considering that.

5. Whereas; although; at the same time as; in spite of the fact that.

Synonyms

• (as soon as): as soon as, immediately, once
• (every time that): whenever
• (during the time that): while, whilst; see also Thesaurus:while
• (at any time that): whenever
• (at which time):
• (given the fact that): given that, seeing that; see also Thesaurus:because
• (in spite of the fact that): but, where, whereas

Translations

Pronoun

when

1. (interrogative) What time; which time.
   • 1831 (published), John Davies, Orchestra Or, a Poem of Dancing, in Robert Southey, Select Works of the British Poets: From Chaucer to Jonson, with Biographical Sketches, page 706:

     Homer, to whom the Muses did carouse

     A great deep cup with heav'nly nectar fill'd,

     The greatest, deepest cup in Jove's great house,

     (For Jove himself had so expressly will'd)

     He drank off all, nor let one drop be spill'd;

     Since when, his brain that had before been dry,

     Became the well-spring of all poetry.

Translations

Noun

when (plural whens)

1. The time at which something happens.

Translations

Interjection

when

1. (often humorous) That's enough: a command asking someone to stop adding something, especially an ingredient or portion of food or drink; used in, or as if in, literal response to 'Say when'.
2. (obsolete) Expressing impatience.

   Coordinate term: what

Translations

Derived terms

References

• “when”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• “when”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.

Anagrams

• hewn

Middle English

Etymology 1

Adverb

when

1. Alternative form of whenne

Conjunction

when

1. Alternative form of whenne

Etymology 2

Verb

when

1. Alternative form of winnen (“to win”)