Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adverb At or in what place.
  • adverb In what situation or position.
  • adverb From what place or source.
  • adverb To what situation; toward what end.
  • conjunction At, to, or in a place in which.
  • conjunction At, to, or in a situation in which.
  • conjunction At, to, or in any place in which; wherever.
  • conjunction At, to, or in any situation in which; wherever.
  • conjunction Whereas.
  • conjunction Usage Problem That.
  • pronoun At, to, or in a place in which.
  • pronoun What place, source, or cause.
  • pronoun The place or situation at, in, or to which.
  • pronoun Usage Problem In which.
  • noun The place or occasion.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • At or in what place? in what position, situation, or circumstances?
  • To which place? whither?
  • From what source? whence?
  • At or in which place, or the place in which; in which case, position, circumstances, etc.
  • To which place; whither; to a place such that.
  • Wherever.
  • Whereas.
  • Where, frequently having the force or function of a relative or other pronoun (which, what, etc.), is often used in composition with a following preposition: as, whereby, ‘by what,’ ‘by which’; wherewith, ‘with what,’ ‘with which.’ It was also formerly used after certain adverbs or adjectives in a general sense, as it still is in everywhere, somewhere (which see), Middle English widen wher (astray, at random), in forms corresponding to similar compounds of there (see there).
  • noun Whereabout; situation; place.
  • A contracted form of whether.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adverb At or in what place; hence, in what situation, position, or circumstances; -- used interrogatively.
  • adverb At or in which place; at the place in which; hence, in the case or instance in which; -- used relatively.
  • adverb To what or which place; hence, to what goal, result, or issue; whither; -- used interrogatively and relatively; as, where are you going?
  • adverb (Naut.) in what direction
  • noun Obs. or Colloq. Place; situation.
  • conjunction Whereas.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • conjunction While on the contrary; although; whereas.
  • conjunction At or in which place or situation.
  • conjunction To which place or situation.
  • conjunction Wherever.
  • conjunction law In a position, case, etc., in which.
  • adverb At what place; to what place; what place.
  • adverb In what situation.
  • pronoun The place in which.
  • noun The place in which something happens.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old English hwǣr; see kwo- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English wher, quher, from Old English hwǣr ("where", literally "at what place"), from Proto-Germanic *hwar (“where”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷo- (interrogative pronoun). Cognate with Scots quhare ("where"), West Frisian wêr ("where"), Dutch waar ("where"), German wo ("where"), Danish hvor ("where"), Icelandic hvar ("where"); related to Old English hwā ("who"). More at who.

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Examples

  • “In a world, where LifeAlert has failed…..where the fallen simply can not..get…up”

    MICHAEL BAY DOES MEGATRON (NOT LITERALLY) 2008

  • I don't know where the spec ops soldier gets off on saying the Canadians don't dismount on foot patrol..this is patently untrue,and if you have seen the combat videos,Canadas' mantra has been/will be aggressive patrolling..always has been..where has this greener beaner been?

    What was the Minister of National Defence thinking? 2007

  • My one was watching Leaving Las Vegas at the cinema with my sister - particularly the scene where Elizabeth Shue's character is explaining to her customers what they can and can't do... or more precisely *where*...

    Moments of Excruciating Embarrassment 2007

  • “Resisting Reasonable Atrocity” says we must speak out, but speaking out is hard to do and takes practice, and our church community should be a place where we can get such practice, “where we can speak our minds and be taken seriously.

    Philocrites: This week at uuworld.org: Heroes' dilemma. 2006

  • Just watch, Karr will not have done anything Eg false confession, however if anyone bothers to investigate where the last few deposits in his bank account came from it will be traced to sham corporation funded by republicans…..where? what NSA ruling?

    Think Progress » Mainstream TV Media Drops The Ball On NSA Ruling, Instead Devotes Attention To JonBenet Ramsey 2006

  • I started out as a wee little brat in Los Altos for 6 years where we were accustomed to NON-white Christmases, then moved to Connecticut where we lived in quintessential New England suburbia..where we OFTEN had white Christmases.

    White Christmas, LA style 2005

  • Picking up her guitar, she removed herself to the far side of the glade, sitting down at an equal distance from where Kieran sat and ~where the wolf had vanished.

    Moonheart De Lint, Charles, 1951- 1990

  • How different _this table_ from many others! where genteel sprightly conversations are shut out; _where_ such as cannot feast their senses on the genius of a _cook_, must rise unsatisfied.

    Barford Abbey Susannah Minific Gunning

  • For her, freedom meant the right to "go where she pleased"; but her love knew no _where_ but my father's roof and her darling's crib, nor anything so wrong as that right.

    The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 18, No. 105, July 1866 Various

  • Give me one like this, where they've all got cards, _where they've all got cards that'll win if they play them right_, and then watch me.

    ThePostmanAlwaysRingsTwice Cain, James 1934

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  • wHERE

    April 26, 2008