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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

wherefore.

Why, for what reason, because of what.

9 characters3 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

adv/ˈwɛəˌfɔː/Received-Pronunciation/ˈweɹˌfɔɹ/General-American/ˈʍɜːɹˌfɔːɹ/obsolete
  1. Why, for what reason, because of what.

    archaic · conjunctive · interrogative · not-comparable
  2. Therefore; thus.

    archaic · conjunctive · formal · indicative · not-comparable
Where this word comes from

From Middle English wherfor, wherfore, hwarfore, equivalent to where- (“what”) + for. Compare Dutch waarvoor (“what for, wherefore”), German wofür (“for what, what for, why”), Danish and Norwegian hvorfor (“wherefore, why”), Swedish varför (“wherefore, why”). More at where, for.

conj/ˈwɛəˌfɔː/Received-Pronunciation/ˈweɹˌfɔɹ/General-American/ˈʍɜːɹˌfɔːɹ/obsolete
  1. Because of which.

    archaic
Where this word comes from

From Middle English wherfor, wherfore, hwarfore, equivalent to where- (“what”) + for. Compare Dutch waarvoor (“what for, wherefore”), German wofür (“for what, what for, why”), Danish and Norwegian hvorfor (“wherefore, why”), Swedish varför (“wherefore, why”). More at where, for.

noun/ˈwɛəˌfɔː/Received-Pronunciation/ˈweɹˌfɔɹ/General-American/ˈʍɜːɹˌfɔːɹ/obsolete
  1. An intent or purpose; a why.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English wherfor, wherfore, hwarfore, equivalent to where- (“what”) + for. Compare Dutch waarvoor (“what for, wherefore”), German wofür (“for what, what for, why”), Danish and Norwegian hvorfor (“wherefore, why”), Swedish varför (“wherefore, why”). More at where, for.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.