Whereas Meaning
/weəɹˈæz/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
advWhere (that).
conjIn contrast; whilst on the contrary; although.
Sentence Examples
In a town you may pass unnoticed, whereas in a village it's impossible.
Working part-time at a supermarket, I found that some customers were polite whereas others weren't.
I am poor, whereas my brothers are very rich.
CEFR Practice Quiz
It is very hot outside today, ____ yesterday it was freezing cold.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He enjoys playing football, ____ his brother prefers to spend his free time reading and several various history books today.
Word Origin & History
From where + as (“that”); first attested in the meaning of "where" in the 14th century. Compare thereas.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"And home she came, whereas her mother blynd / Sate in eternall night […]"
— 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.iii:
"One significance weakness of phrenology in the eyes of most anatomists, as Anne Harrington has shown, was that the brain comprised two structurally identical cerebral hemispheres, separated by a longitudinal fissure, whereas phrenologists held that the material sub-stratum of various mental faculties was located in only one hemisphere, and not its twin."
— 2020 October 5, Paul Turnbull, “Thinking About Craniometry- The Racial Turn”, in Paul Turnbull:
"And Whereas it hath pleased the Great Governor of the World to incline the hearts of the legislatures we respectively represent in Congress, to approve of, and to authorize us to ratify the said Articles of Confederation and perpetual Union."
— 1778, United States Articles of Confederation:
"[…]the promise is stated after a whereas, though the promise is the very gist of the action, yet, such a count so framed, will be held good on demurrer."
— 1883, The Insurance Law Journal, Potter and Company:
"It had a page or so of whereases."
— 1908, United States Congress, Hearings beginning March 9, 1908 – April 30, 1908:
Explore More B2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
It is very hot outside today, ____ yesterday it was freezing cold.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He enjoys playing football, ____ his brother prefers to spend his free time reading and several various history books today.