why

CEFRA1

/ˈwaɪ̯/

adverb

Türkçe translations

Translating…

In plain English

  1. 01

    adverb

    For what reason or purpose.

  2. 02

    adverb

    Extra detail

    For what cause, reason, or purpose.

Examples

  • Knowing why and how corporations award contracts is vitally important.

  • Thanks for having explained to me at last why people take me for an idiot.

At a glance

Sits at A1 on the CEFR scale

Senses
5
Parts of speech
1
Citations
5
Synonyms
5

Also pronounced

  • [ˈʍaɪ̯] ~ [ˈw̥aɪ̯]
  • /ˈʍae̯/

Deep Dive

adverb

Extra meanings

  1. Introducing a complete question.

  2. With a negative, used rhetorically to make a suggestion.

  3. Introducing a verb phrase (bare infinitive clause).

More examples

In context

  • I don’t know why he did that

  • Why do you ask?

  • Why did you do that?

Synonyms

Quick test

Two questions on this entry. Nothing is scored.

Question 1 · Quick check

The teacher asked the student blank he had not completed his math homework by the due date.

Practise this properly in the app, where the word comes back before you forget it.

Nearby

Origin

adverb

From Middle English why, from Old English hwȳ (“why”), from Proto-Germanic *hwī (“by what, how”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷey, instrumental case of *kʷís (“who”), *kʷid (“what”). Cognate with Old Saxon hwī (“why”), hwiu (“how; why”), Middle High German wiu (“how, why”), archaic Danish and Norwegian Bokmål hvi (“why”), Norwegian Nynorsk kvi (“why”), Swedish vi (“why”), Faroese and Icelandic hví (“why”), Latin quī (“why”), Doric Greek πεῖ (peî, “where”), Ukrainian чи (čy, “if”), Polish czy, Czech či (“or”), Serbo-Croatian či (“if”). Compare Old English þȳ (“because, since, on that account, therefore, then”, literally “by that, for that”). See thy.