Word.ws English Dictionary

wherefores

wherefores is the plural of wherefore.

Meaning of wherefore

Noun

wherefore (plural wherefores)

  1. An intent or purpose; a why.
    • Ant[ipholus of Syracuse]. Shall I tell you why? / S. Dro. [Dromio of Syracuse] I, ſir, and wherefore; for they ſay, euery why hath a wherefore.c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...

See all 4 meanings of wherefore

Phrases with wherefores

Questions about wherefores

What is wherefores the plural of?
Wherefores is the plural of wherefore.

Words near wherefores in the dictionary

  1. wheredunnits
  2. wheree'er
  3. whereever
  4. wherefor
  5. wherefore
  6. wherefores
  7. wherefors
  8. wherefrom
  9. wherein
  10. whereinafter
  11. whereinbefore

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: wherefores (page history and authors); wherefore (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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