whence

English

Pronunciation

• enPR: hwĕns, IPA: /ʍɛns/, SAMPA: /WEns/
• (in accents with the wine-whine merger) enPR: wĕns, IPA: /wɛns/, SAMPA: /wEns/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

  Rhymes: -ɛns

Adverb

whence (not comparable)

1. From where; from which place or source.

   Whence came I?

   • 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.

   • 1818, Mary Shelley, chapter 4, Frankenstein^[1]:

     Whence, I often asked myself, did the principle of life proceed?

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.

Translations

From where; from which place or source

Czech: odkud (cs) Danish: hvorfra (da), hvoraf (da) Dutch: waarvandaan (nl) Fore: forrt, gerrt French: d'où (fr) German: woher (de) Greek: αφού (el) (afoú) Hungarian: honnan (hu), honnét (hu) Icelandic: hvaðan (is) Italian: da dove

Korean: 어디서 (ko) (eo-di-seo) Latin: unde (la) Polish: skąd (pl) Portuguese: donde (pt) Russian: откуда (ru) Serbian: otkuda (sr), odakle (sr) Serbo-Croatian: odakle (sh), otkud (sh) Spanish: ¿de dónde? Swedish: varifrån (sv), var i från (sv), vadan (sv)

Conjunction

whence

1. From where.
   • 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.

2. (literary, poetic) From which.

   From French, whence we get most of our modern cooking terms.

   I scored more than you in the exam, whence we can conclude that I am better at the subject than you are.

Translations

From where

Danish: hvorfra (da) Esperanto: el kie (eo) French: d'où (fr) German: woher (de) Greek: από πού (el)

Hungarian: ahonnan (hu), ahonnét (hu) Portuguese: de onde (pt) Russian: откуда (ru) Swedish: varifrån (sv), var i från (sv), vadan (sv)

From which

Danish: hvorfra (da), hvoraf (da) French: d'où (fr), duquel (fr) m. sg. (1), desquels (fr) m. pl. (1), de laquelle (fr) f. sg. (1), desquelles (fr) f. pl. (1), dont (fr) (1), ce dont (fr) (2) Greek: από όπου

Hungarian: ahonnan (hu), amiből (hu) Russian: откуда, отсюда, следовательно, значит Swedish: varav (sv), var av (sv)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Help:How to check translations.

Translations to be checked

Dutch: waarvandaan, “waar … vandaan…” German: woher Italian: da dove (1); da cui (2)

Antonyms

• whither

Related terms

• elsewhence
• thence
• hence
• whencever
• whencesoever
• whenceforth