where

While on the contrary; although; whereas.

Adverb

  1. In, at or to what place.
    • Where are you?
    • He asked where I grew up.
    • Where are you going?

    Synonyms: whither

  2. In what situation.
    • Where would we be without our parents?
  3. 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.
  4. In, at or to any place (that); wherever; anywhere.
    • Please sit where you like.
    • Their job is to go where they are called.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
    • Through the open front door ran Jessamy, down the steps to where Kitto was sitting at the bottom with the pram beside him. - 1967, Barbara Sleigh, Jessamy, Sevenoaks, Kent: Bloomsbury, published 1993, →ISBN, page 122:
  7. A situation or case in which.
    • A function is where two variables are related.
  8. In a/the situation, position, case, etc. in which.
    • 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.

Origin

Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kʷ- Proto-Indo-European *kʷís Proto-Germanic *hwaz Proto-Indo-European *-r Proto-Germanic *-r Proto-Germanic *hwar Proto-West Germanic *hwār Old English hwǣr Middle English wher English where From Middle English wher, from Old English hwǣr (“where”, literally “at what place”), from Proto-West Germanic *hwār, from Proto-Germanic *hwar (“where”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷ- (interrogative pronoun).

Forms

quhair quhar quher quhere

Conjunction

  1. While on the contrary; although; whereas.
    • And flight and die is death destroying death; Where fearing dying pays death servile breath. - 1595 December 9 (first known performance), William Shakespeare, “The Life and Death of King Richard the Second”, in Mr....
    • July 18 2012, Scott Tobias, AV Club The Dark Knight Riseshttp://www.avclub.com/articles/the-dark-knight-rises-review-batman,82624/ Where the Joker preys on our fears of random, irrational acts of terror, Bane has an...
    • 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...
  2. That.
    • I read where they caught the guy.

Forms

quhair quhar quher quhere

Noun

  1. The place in which something happens.
    • A good article will cover the who, the what, the when, the where, the why and the how.
    • Finding the nymph a sleepe in secret wheare - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 19:

Forms

wheres quhair quhar quher quhere

Derived

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 drive a nail where it will go elsewhere everywhere every where every which where fools rush in where angels fear to tread where one is sitting 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

Pronoun

  1. What place.
    • Where did you come from?
    • Where are you at?
    • Where are you off to?

Forms

quhair quhar quher quhere