where

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

English

Alternative forms

• quhair, quhar, quher, quhere (all obsolete)

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/
• (General American) enPR: hwâr, wâr; IPA^(key): /ʍɛɚ/, /wɛɚ/
• (Canada) IPA^(key): [weːɹ], [ʍeːɹ]
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /weː/
• (New Zealand, without the cheer–chair merger) IPA^(key): /weə/
• (New Zealand, cheer–chair merger) IPA^(key): /wiə/
• (Scotland) IPA^(key): /ʍeɹ/
• (Lancashire, fair–fur merger) IPA^(key): /wɜː(ɹ)/
• Homophones: ware, wear (both wine–whine merger); weir, we're (both cheer–chair merger, wine–whine merger); whir (fair–fur merger); were (fair–fur merger, wine–whine merger)
• Rhymes: -ɛə(ɹ)

Adverb

where (not comparable)

1. (interrogative) In, at or to what place.

   Synonym: (to which place; archaic or literary) whither

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:where.
2. In what situation.

3. In, at or to the place (that) or a place (that).
4. In, at or to any place (that); wherever; anywhere.

5. (relative) In, at or to which.

6. (fused relative) The place in, at or to which.
7. (fused relative, informal) A situation or case in which.

8. In a/the situation, position, case, etc. in which.

Translations

Conjunction

where

1. While on the contrary; although; whereas.
   • July 18 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Dark Knight Rises[1]

     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.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:where.

2. (informal) That.

Translations

Pronoun

where

1. (interrogative) What place.

Noun

where (plural wheres)

1. The place in which something happens.

Translations

Derived terms

Descendants

• Hawaiian Creole: wea

Anagrams

• Hewer, hewer, rehew