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wherewithal

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Etymology

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From where +‎ withal.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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wherewithal (countable and uncountable, plural wherewithals)

  1. The ability and means required to accomplish some task.
    I would like to help your project, but I do not have the wherewithal.
    • 1688, John Dryden, The Life of St Francis Xavier, book II, translation of original by Dominique Bouhours:
      Justice was sold at the tribunals, and the most enormous crimes escaped from punishment, when the criminals had wherewithal to corrupt their judges.
    • 1954, Edward Eager, Half Magic:
      Big Council meeting! At the bookshop in twenty minutes. Carfare will be refunded. Can we scrape together the wherewithal?
    • 1986, David Leavitt, The Lost Language of Cranes, paperback edition, Penguin, page 67:
      "I just can't imagine," Philip said, "having that kind of self-knowledge, that kind of...wherewithal at fifteen. [] "
    • 2011 December 15, Felicity Cloake, “How to cook the perfect nut roast”, in Guardian[1]:
      [] A single slice of this could leave you supine in front of the Queen's speech without even the wherewithal to reach for the remote control.
    • 2019, John O’Connell, Bowie's Bookshelf, →ISBN:
      Although Emma comes to realise she's trapped in a kind of hell, married to a dullard she despises, she lacks the intellectual wherewithal to plot a breakout more sophisticated than consorting with idiots such as Leon and Rodolphe.
    • 2022, Gary Gerstle, chapter 8, in The Rise and Fall of the Neoliberal Order [] , New York: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, Part II. The Neoliberal Order, 1970–2020:
      In political economic terms, the pandemic worked to intensify a development that the decline in the neoliberal order had already set in motion: namely, a conviction that government was the only institution with the wherewithal to address severe economic and social hardship.

Translations

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Adverb

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wherewithal (not comparable)

  1. (archaic) In what way; how.
  2. (archaic) By means of which.
    Synonyms: whereby, wherewith

Translations

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See also

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Here-, there-, and where- words