where meaning: definition, etymology and quotations

where

adv

UK /wɛː/ · /ˈwɛə/

Etymology 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).

8 senses

1In, at or to what place.
2In what situation.
3In, at or to the place (that) or a place (that).
4In, at or to any place (that); wherever; anywhere.
5In, at or to which.
6The place in, at or to which.
7A situation or case in which.
8In a/the situation, position, case, etc. in which.

Interrogative In, at or to what place.

Where are you?
He asked where I grew up.

4 more examples

Where are you going?
Where you going?
I've forgotten where I was in this book, but it was probably around chapter four.
I hardly knew where I was going.

In what situation.

Where would we be without our parents?

In, at or to the place (that) or a place (that).

Stay where you are.
Go back where you came from.

2 more examples

Let's go where it's warmer.
Energy has seldom been found where we need it when we want it. Ancient nomads, wishing to ward off the evening chill and enjoy a meal around a campfire, had to collect wood and then spend time and effort coaxing the heat of friction out from between sticks to kindle a flame. With more settled people, animals were harnessed to capstans or caged in treadmills to turn grist into meal.2013 July-August, Henry Petroski, “Geothermal Energy”, in American Scientist, volume 101, number 4:

In, at or to any place (that); wherever; anywhere.

Please sit where you like.
Their job is to go where they are called.

Relative 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.

3 more examples

That's the place where we went on holiday.
Here's a picture of York, where I was born.
Show me an example where it happened that way.

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.

1 more example

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:

Informal A situation or case in which.

A function is where two variables are related.

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.

where

conj

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. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene ii]:
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 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.

2 more examples

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 our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet.2013 June 14, Jonathan Freedland, “Obama's once hip brand is now tainted”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 18:
Where Susy has trouble coloring inside the lines, Johnny has already mastered shading.

Informal That.

I read where they caught the guy.

where

pron

Interrogative What place.

Where did you come from?
Where are you at?

3 more examples

Where are you off to?
Where you off to?
Do you know where you came from?

where

noun

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 wheare1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto IV”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 19:

Derived terms: 110 terms
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, know where one stands, know where the bodies are buried, let the chips fall where they may, let the dice fall where they may, let the door hit you where the good Lord split you, meet someone where they are, not know where to turn, put one's money where one's mouth is, start from where you are, tell someone where to get off, tell someone where to shove it, there's more where that came from, this is where I came in, this is where we came in, we are where we are, whereabouts, whereafter, whereagainst, wherealong, where are the snows of yesteryear, where are the toilets, where are we, where are we going, where are you, where are you from, where are your parents, whereas, whereat, where away, whereby, where can I find a hotel, where does it hurt, where does this bus go, where does this train go, where do I sign up, where do you live, where do you live at, where do you work, wherefore, wherefrom, where got, where have you been, where I come from, wherein, whereinto, where is the lie, where is the toilet, where it counts, where it's at, whereness, wherenot, whereof, whereon, where one lives, whereover, wheresoever, where someone is coming from, where someone lives, wherethan, where the heck, where the puck is going, where the puck is heading, where there is a will, where there is a will there is a way, where there's a will there's a way, where there's muck there's brass, where there's no sense there's no feeling, where the shoe pinches, where the sun doesn't shine, where the sun don't shine, wherethrough, whereto, wheretoward, whereunder, whereuntil, whereunto, whereupon, wherever, wherewith, wherewithal, wherewithin, where you at, where you stand depends on where you sit, write-what-where, you don't get your nookie where you get your cookies, you don't know where it's been

Entry derived from the Wiktionary, under licence CC BY-SA 4.0 — list of authors.