English [edit]
Wikipedia
Etymology 1 [edit]
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 *kʷey, locative of *kʷís (“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.
Pronunciation [edit]
- enPR: hwī, wī, IPA: /ʍaɪ/, /waɪ/, X-SAMPA: /WaI/, /waI/
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- Rhymes: -aɪ
- Homophones: wye, Y, y (all only in accents with the wine-whine merger)
Adverb [edit]
why (not comparable)
- For what cause, reason, or purpose.
- Why is the sky blue?
- Why did you do that?
Synonyms [edit]
Translations [edit]
for what reason
- Afrikaans: waarom (af)
- Alabama: sáhmi
- Albanian: pse (sq), përse (sq)
- American Sign Language: OpenB@Sfhead Y@FromSfhead
- Arabic: لِماذا (ar) (limāḏā)
- Egyptian: ليه (līh)
- Levantine: ليش (līš)
- Armenian: ինչու (hy) (inču) , խի (hy) (xi)
- Old Armenian: էր (ēr), հիմ (him), իմ (im), ընդէր (əndēr), էրում (ērum), զի (zi), զմէ (zmē)
- Asturian: por qué (ast)
- Azeri: niyə (az), nə üçün (az)
- Bakhtiari: سیچی (sičē), سیچه (sičē)
- Belarusian: чаму (be) (čamú)
- Bengali: কেন (bn) (kyano)
- Bikol: ta-no ta
- Breton: perak (br)
- Bulgarian: защо (bg) (zaštó)
- Burmese: ဘာဖြစ်လို့ (my) (bahpyitlo.)
- Catalan: per què (ca)
- Cebuano: ngano
- Cherokee: ᎦᏙᏃ (chr) (gadono)
- Chickasaw: katimi ta
- Chinese:
- Cantonese: 點解 (dímgáai), 為乜 (wạimāt)
- Mandarin: 為什麼 (cmn), 为什么 (cmn) (wèishénme)
- 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)
- Middle French: parquoy
- Georgian: რატომ (ka) (ratom) , რისთვის (ka) (rist‘vis)
- German: warum (de), wieso (de), weshalb (de), weswegen (de)
- Gothic: 𐌳𐌿𐍈𐌴 (duƕe)
- Greek: γιατί (el) (giatí)
- Greenlandic: sooq (kl)
- Guernésiais: pourtchi
- 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 (io)
- 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
- Kazakh: неге (kk) (nege)
- Khmer: ហេតុអ្វី (km) (hait ēi)
- Korean: 왜 (ko) (wae)
- Krio: wetin mek
- Kurdish:
- Sorani: بۆ (ku), لهبهر چی (ku)
- Kyrgyz: эмне үчүн (ky) (emne üçün)
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- Lao: ເປັນຫຍັງ (lo) (pen-ñang)
- Latgalian: parkū, deļkuo
- Latin: cur (la), quare (la)
- Latvian: kapec (lv), kādēļ (lv)
- Limburgish: boerum (li), veurwat (li), woerum (li)
- Lithuanian: kodėl (lt)
- Luxembourgish: firwat (lb)
- Macedonian: зошто (mk) (zóšto)
- 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
- Mongolian: яагаад (mn) (jaagaad)
- Navajo: haʼátʼíísh biniinaa
- Neapolitan: pecché
- Nepali: please add this translation if you can
- Norwegian:
- Bokmål: hvorfor (nb)
- Nynorsk: korfor (nn), kvifor (nn)
- Ojibwe: aaniish, aaniin, aanishwin
- Oriya: please add this translation if you can
- Pangasinan: akin
- Persian: چرا (fa) (čerâ), برای چی (fa) (barâye či)
- Pitjantjatjara: nyaaku
- Polish: dlaczego (pl), czemu (pl)
- Portuguese: por que (pt)
- Romanian: de ce (ro), pentru ce (ro)
- Russian: почему (ru) (počemú) , зачем (ru) (zachém)
- Sanskrit: please add this translation if you can
- Scots: why
- Scottish Gaelic: carson (gd)
- Serbo-Croatian:
- Cyrillic: за̏што (sh)
- Roman: zȁšto (sh)
- Sinhalese: ඇයි (si) (aeyi)
- Slovak: prečo (sk)
- Slovene: zakáj (sl)
- Spanish: por qué (es)
- Swahili: kwaje (sw)
- Swedish: varför (sv)
- Tagalog: bakit (tl)
- Tahitian: please add this translation if you can
- Tajik: чаро (tg) (čaro)
- Tamil: please add this translation if you can
- Tausug: mayta'
- Telugu: ఎందుకు (te) (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: ག་རེ་བྱས་ནས (bo) (ga re byas nas)
- Tok Pisin: watpo (tpi)
- Tongan: please add this translation if you can
- Turkish: neden (tr), niçin (tr)
- Turkmen: üçin (tk), näme üçin (tk)
- 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 (fy)
- Yiddish: למאַי (yi) (lemay), פֿאַרוואָס (yi) (farvos)
- Yola: farthoo
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Conjunction [edit]
why
- The reason that.
- I don’t know why he did that.
- Tell me why the moon changes phase.
Synonyms [edit]
Translations [edit]
why (plural whys)
- The reason.
- A good article will cover the who, the what, the when, the where, the why and the how.
Synonyms [edit]
Translations [edit]
Interjection [edit]
why
- Exclamation of mild surprise.
- Daniel Defoe
- “Why, child, I tell thee if I was thy mother I would not disown thee; don't you see I am as kind to you as if I was your mother?”
Translations [edit]
Derived terms [edit]
Terms derived from the adverb, conjunction, noun, or interjection why
Etymology 2 [edit]
why (plural whies)
- (UK, dialect) A young heifer.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Grose to this entry?)
Statistics [edit]
External links [edit]
Anagrams [edit]
