whence
Pronunciation Adverb

whence (not comparable)

  1. (archaic, formal or literary) From where; from which place or source.
    Whence came I?
    "Pork" comes from French, whence we get most of our modern cooking terms.
    • 1818, Mary Shelley, Frankenstein, Chapter 4:
      Whence, I often asked myself, did the principle of life proceed?
    • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 564:
      […] But when I had bestridden the plank, quoth I to myself, "Thou deserveth all that betideth thee. All this is decreed to me of Allah (whose name be exalted!), to turn me from my greed of gain, whence ariseth all that I endure, for I have wealth galore."
    • 1898, J. Meade Falkner, Moonfleet, Chapter 3:
      At first I could not tell what this new sound was, nor whence it came, and now it seemed a little noise close by, and now a great noise in the distance. And then it grew nearer and more defined, and in a moment I knew it was the sound of voices talking.
Antonyms Related terms Translations
  • French: d'où
  • German: woher
  • Italian: onde, donde, da dove
  • Portuguese: donde, de onde
  • Russian: отку́да
  • Spanish: de donde
Conjunction
  1. (literary, poetic) Used for introducing the result of a fact that has just been stated.
    The work is slow and dangerous, whence the high costs.
    I scored more than you in the exam, whence we can conclude that I am better at the subject than you are.
Antonyms Related terms Translations


This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.002
Offline English dictionary