[edit] English
Wikipedia
[edit] Etymology
From Middle English, from Old English hwȳ, hwī (“why”, instrumental case of hwæt (“what”), literally “by what, for what”), from Proto-Germanic *hwī (“by what, how”), from Proto-Indo-European *kwei (locative of Proto-Indo-European *kwo (“who”)). Cognate with Middle High German wiu (“how, why”), Danish and Swedish hvi (“why”), Faroese and Icelandic hví (“why”), Latin cui (“to whom”, dative case of quī (“who, how, why”)), Ancient Greek πει (pei, “where”). Compare Old English þȳ (“because, since, on that account, therefore, then”, literally “by that, for that”). See thy.
[edit] Pronunciation
- enPR: hwī, wī, IPA: /ʍaɪ/, /waɪ/, SAMPA: /WaI/, /waI/
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- Rhymes: -aɪ
- Homophones: wye, Y, y (all only in accents with the wine-whine merger)
[edit] Adverb
why (not comparable)
- For what cause, reason, or purpose.
- Why did you do that?
[edit] Synonyms
[edit] Translations
for what reason
- Afrikaans: waarom
- Alabama: sáhmi
- Albanian: pse, përse
- American Sign Language: OpenB@Sfhead Y@FromSfhead
- Arabic: لِماذا (ar) (limaadhaa)
- Egyptian: ليه (līh)
- Levantine: ليش (līš)
- Armenian: ինչու (hy) (inču), խի (hy) (xi)
- Azeri: niyə (az), nə üçün (az)
- Belarusian: чаму (be) (čamú)
- Bengali: কেন (bn) (kyano)
- Bikol: ta-no ta
- Bosnian: zašto (bs)
- Breton: perak
- Bulgarian: защо (bg) (zaštó)
- Burmese: ဘာဖြစ်လို့ (my) (bahpyitlo.)
- Catalan: per què
- Cebuano: ngano
- Cherokee: ᎦᏙᏃ (gadono)
- Chickasaw: katimi ta
- Chinese:
- Cantonese: 點解 (dímgáai), 為乜 (wạimāt)
- Mandarin: 為什麼 (cmn), 为什么 (cmn) (wèishénme)
- Croatian: zašto (hr)
- Czech: proč (cs)
- Danish: hvorfor (da)
- Dhivehi: please add this translation if you can
- Dutch: waarom (nl)
- Esperanto: kial (eo)
- Estonian: miks (et)
- Faroese: hví (fo)
- Finnish: miksi (fi)
- French: pourquoi (fr)
- Georgian: რატომ (ka) (ratom), რისთვის (ka) (rist‘vis)
- German: warum (de), wieso (de), weshalb (de), weswegen (de)
- Greek: γιατί (el) (yiatí)
- Hawaiian: aha
- Hebrew: למה (he) (láma)
- Hiligaynon: ngaa
- Hindi: क्यों (hi) (kyõ), क्यूँ (hi) (kyū̃)
- Hungarian: miért (hu)
- Ibanag: ngatta
- Icelandic: af hverju (is), hví (is) (dated)
- Ido: pro quo
- Ilocano: apay
- Indonesian: mengapa (id), kenapa (id)
- Irish: cad chuige (ga), cén fáth (ga)
- Italian: perché (it)
- Japanese: 何故 (ja) (なぜ, naze), なぜ (ja) (naze), なんで (ja) (nande), どうして (ja) (dōshite)
- Kannada: please add this translation if you can
- Kapampangan: obakit, bakit, obat, ot
- Khmer: ហេតុអ្វី (km) (hait ēi)
- Korean: 왜 (ko) (wae)
- Kurdish: بۆ, لهبهر چی
- Lao: ເປັນຫຍັງ (lo) (pen-ñang)
- Latin: cur (la), quare (la)
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- Latvian: kapec, kādēļ (lv)
- Limburgish: boerum, veurwat, woerum
- Lithuanian: kodėl (lt)
- Macedonian: зошто (mk) (zoštó)
- Malay: mengapa (ms), kenapa (ms)
- Malayalam: please add this translation if you can
- Maltese: ghaliex (mt)
- Maori: please add this translation if you can
- Marathi: please add this translation if you can
- Middle French: parquoy
- Mongolian: яагаад (mn) (yaagaad)
- Navajo: haʼátʼíísh biniinaa
- Neapolitan: pecché
- Nepali: please add this translation if you can
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: hvorfor
- Nynorsk: korfor, kvifor
- Ojibwe: aaniish, aaniin, aanishwin
- Oriya: please add this translation if you can
- Pangasinan: akin
- Persian: چرا (fa) (čerâ)
- Pitjantjatjara: nyaaku
- Polish: dlaczego (pl), czemu (pl)
- Portuguese: por que (pt)
- Romanian: de ce, pentru ce
- Russian: почему (ru) (počemú)
- Sanskrit: please add this translation if you can
- Scots: why
- Scottish Gaelic: carson
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: зашто (sh)
- Roman: zašto (sh)
- Sinhalese: ඇයි (si) (aeyi)
- Slovak: prečo (sk)
- Slovene: zakaj (sl)
- Spanish: por qué (es)
- Swahili: kwaje
- Swedish: varför (sv)
- Tagalog: bakit
- Tahitian: please add this translation if you can
- Tamil: please add this translation if you can
- Tausug: mayta'
- Telugu: ఎందుకు (emduku)
- Thai: เหตุใด (th) (hèt dai), เหตุไฉน (th) (hèt chànai), เหตุไร (th) (hèt rai), เพราะเหตุไร (th) (prór hèt rai), เพราะเหตุอะไร (th) (prór hèt àrai)
- Tibetan: please add this translation if you can
- Tongan: please add this translation if you can
- Turkish: neden (tr), niçin (tr)
- Ukrainian: чому (uk) (čomú)
- Urdu: کیوں (ur) (kyõ, kyū̃)
- Uzbek: nega (uz)
- Vietnamese: sao (vi), vì sao (vi), tại sao (vi)
- Volapük: kikodo (vo)
- Waray-Waray: kay-ano
- Welsh: paham (cy)
- West Frisian: wêrom
- Yiddish: למאַי (yi) (lemay), פֿאַרוואָס (yi) (farvos)
- Yola: farthoo
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[edit] Conjunction
why
- The reason that.
- I don’t know why he did that.
[edit] Translations
why (plural whys)
- The reason.
- A good article will cover the who, the what, the when, the where, the why and the how.
[edit] Synonyms
[edit] Translations
[edit] Interjection
why
- Exclamation of mild surprise.
- Why, I think it would work fine!
[edit] Translations
[edit] Derived terms
Terms derived from the adverb, conjunction, noun, or interjection why
[edit] Statistics
[edit] External links
[edit] Anagrams
