whither

English

Etymology

From Old English hwider, alteration of hwæder, from Proto-Germanic *hwadrê.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈʍɪðɚ/; enPR: hwĭthʹər
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈʍɪðə/
• (in accents with the wine-whine merger) IPA^(key): /ˈwɪðɚ/, /ˈwɪðə/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɪðə(ɹ)
• Homophone: wither (in accents with the wine-whine merger)

Adverb

whither (not comparable)

1. (archaic, formal, poetic or literary) To what place.
   • 1611, King James Bible‎^Wikisource, John 8:14:

     Jesus answered and said unto them, Though I bear record of myself, yet my record is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I go; but ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I go.

   • 1883, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Sea-chest”, in Treasure Island‎^Wikisource:

     [W]hat greatly encouraged me, it was in an opposite direction from that whence the blind man had made his appearance and whither he had presumably returned.

   • 1885, Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde, Penguin Red Classics, paperback edition, page 24

     And with the same grave countenance he hurried through his breakfast and drove to the police station, whither the body had been carried.

   • 1918, Willa Cather, My Antonia, Mirado Modern Classics, paperback edition, page 8

     The wagon jolted on, carrying me I knew not whither.

Usage notes

• This word is unusual in modern usage; (to) where is much more common. It is more often encountered in older works or when used poetically.
• It is also sometimes used as a rhetorical device by journalists and other writers in headlines, with the meaning "What will the future bring for ..."
• Do not confuse with whether or wither.
• Compare to the inanimate pronoun "whereto" which follows the pattern of "preposition + what" or "preposition + which".

Antonyms

• whence

Derived terms

Terms derived from whither

• anywhither
• elsewhither
• everywhither

• nowhither
• somewhither
• whitherever

• whithersoever
• whitherto
• whitherward

Related terms

• hither
• thither
• whithersoever

Translations

to which place

• Arabic: إِلَى أَيْنَ‎ (ʾilā ʾayna)
• Belarusian: куды́ (kudý)
• Bulgarian: накъде́ (bg) (nakǎdé)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 哪兒 (zh), 哪儿 (zh) (nǎr), 哪裡 (zh), 哪里 (zh) (nǎlǐ)

• Czech: kam (cs)
• Danish: hvorhen
• Dutch: waarheen (nl), werwaarts
• Esperanto: kien (eo)
• Faroese: hvagar
• Finnish: minne (fi), jonne (fi), kunne (fi) (archaic)
• French: où (fr)
• German: wohin (de)
• Greek:

  Ancient: ποῖ (poî), οἷ (hoî), ᾗ (hêi)

• Gothic: 𐍈𐌰𐌳𐍂𐌴 (ƕadrē)
• Hebrew: לְאָן‎ (leán)
• Hungarian: hová (hu), hova (hu), merrefelé (hu)
• Icelandic: hvert (is)
• Italian: a dove
• Japanese: どこへ (ja) (doko e)
• Korean: 어디 (ko) (eodi), 어디에 (ko) (eodie)
• Kriol: wijei

• Latin: quō (la)
• Latvian: kur, kurp
• Macedonian: каде (kade), накаде (nakade)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: hvor (no), hvor hen

  Nynorsk: kor, kvar

• Old Church Slavonic:

  Cyrillic: камѡ (kamo) (interrogative), ꙗмѡ (jamo) (relative)

• Old English: hwæder
• Polish: dokąd (pl)
• Portuguese: aonde (pt)
• Romanian: încotro (ro)
• Russian: куда́ (ru) (kudá)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: куда, камо

  Roman: kuda (sh), kamo (sh)

• Slovak: kam
• Slovene: kam (sl)
• Spanish: adónde (es) (interrogative), adonde (es) (relative)
• Swedish: vart (sv), varthän (sv)
• Turkish: nereye (tr)
• Ukrainian: куди́ (kudý)
• Vietnamese: đâu (vi)
• Volapük: kipladio (vo)
• Yiddish: וווּהין‎ (vuhin)

Verb

whither (third-person singular simple present whithers, present participle whithering, simple past and past participle whithered)

1. (intransitive, obsolete, dialectal) To wuther.