whither

whither

English

Pronunciation

• (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

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

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.

2. (informal, humorous) Into what future state; where next.
   • 2018, Tommie Gorman, RTE.ie, article headline

     Whither now the DUP?

Usage notes

• Do not confuse with whether or wither.
• Compare the relative adverb whereto.

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／哪儿 (zh) (nǎr), 哪裡／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) Gothic: 𐍈𐌰𐌳𐍂𐌴 (ƕadrē), 𐍈𐌰𐌸 (ƕaþ) Greek: Ancient: ποῖ (poî), οἷ (hoî), ᾗ (hêi) 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)

Etymology 2

See wuther.

Verb

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

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