whither
English edit
Pronunciation edit
- (General American) IPA(key): /ˈwɪðɚ/; enPR: wĭthʹər
- (Received Pronunciation) IPA(key): /ˈwɪðə/
- (in accents without the wine-whine merger) IPA(key): /ˈʍɪðɚ/, /ˈʍɪðə/
Audio (US) (file) - Rhymes: -ɪðə(ɹ)
- Homophone: wither (in accents with the wine-whine merger)
Etymology 1 edit
From Middle English whider, from Old English hwider, alteration of hwæder, from Proto-Germanic *hwadrê.
Adverb edit
whither (not comparable)
- (archaic, formal, poetic or literary) To what place.
- Antonym: whence
- 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, John 8:14:
- Iesus answered, and said vnto them, Though I beare record of my selfe, yet my record is true: for I know whence I came, and whither I goe: but ye cannot tell whence I come, and whither I goe.
- 1881–1882, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Sea-chest”, in Treasure Island, London, Paris: Cassell & Company, published 14 November 1883, →OCLC, part I (The Old Buccaneer), page 29:
- [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.
- 1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 38:
- And with the same grave countenance he hurried through his breakfast and drove to the police station, whither the body had been carried.
- 1907, Arthur Conan Doyle, chapter I, in Through the Magic Door[1]:
- Close the door of that room behind you, shut off with it all the cares of the outer world, plunge back into the soothing company of the great dead, and then you are through the magic portal into that fair land whither worry and vexation can follow you no more.
- 1918, Willa Cather, My Ántonia, paperback edition, Mirado Modern Classics, page 8:
- The wagon jolted on, carrying me I knew not whither.
- (informal, humorous) Into what future state; where next.
- 2018, Tommie Gorman, “Whither now the DUP?”, in RTE.ie[2]:
- Whither now the DUP? [title]
Usage notes edit
Derived terms edit
Translations edit
to which place
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See also edit
here | there | where | |
to | hither | thither | whither |
from | hence | thence | whence |
Etymology 2 edit
See wuther.
Verb edit
whither (third-person singular simple present whithers, present participle whithering, simple past and past participle whithered)
- (intransitive, obsolete, dialectal) To wuther.