Word.ws English Dictionary

for what

for what is the alternative form of what for.

Meaning of what for

Adverb

what for (not comparable)

  1. For what purpose.
    • What is this tool for?
  2. (colloquial) For what reason; why.
    • He wants four copies of it? What for?

See all 3 meanings of what for

Questions about for what

What is for what the alternative form of?
For what is the alternative form of what for.

Words near for what in the dictionary

  1. for two pins
  2. for very shame's sake
  3. for Wales
  4. for want of
  5. for weal or woe
  6. for what
  7. for what it's worth
  8. for what we are about to receive, may the Lord make us truly thankful
  9. for why
  10. for worlds
  11. for XYZ reasons

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: for what (page history and authors); what for (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “for what.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/for_what. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.