Whence

Pronunciation

enPR: hwÄ•ns, IPA: /ÊÉ›ns/
in accents with the wine-whine merger enPR: wÄ•ns, IPA: /wÉ›ns/
Rhymes: -É›ns

Origin

From Middle English whennes, from Old English hwanone (with adverbial genitive -s), related to hwÃ¦nne.

Full definition of whence

Adverb

whence

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?
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.

What 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.

Usage notes

This word is uncommon in modern usage; from where is now usually substituted (as in the example sentence: Where did I come from? or From where did I come?). It is now chiefly encountered in older works, or in poetic or literary writing.

From whence has a strong literary precedent, appearing in Shakespeare and the King James Bible as well as in the writings of numerous Victorian-era writers. In recent times, however, it has been criticized as redundant by usage commentators.

Conjunction

(literary, poetic) used for introducing the result of a fact that has just been statedThe 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

(?) whither