Word.ws English Dictionary

whither

Syllables: whith·er/ˈwɪðəː/

whither adverb: to what place; where.

Adverb

whither (not comparable)

  1. To what place; where.
    • Whither wilt thou wander, wayfarer?
    • When as wee duely conſider, whether euery way leadeth, or wiſely ponder with our ſelues to what end we refer each one of our actions, and exact of our ſtraying thoughts a more ſeuere account of their wandering courſe, we ſhal find no victory ſo great, as the ſubduing of vice, nothing ſo hard as to...1589, T[homas] Nashe, The Anatomie of Absurditie: […], London: […] I[ohn] Charlewood for Thomas Hacket, […], →OCLC, signature E.iii., verso
    Antonyms:
    whence
  2. (also, figuratively, humorous) To what (future) cause, condition or state, reason, etc.; where, where next; also (obsolete) to what extent; how far.
    • VVhither at length vvilt thou abuſe our patience?1611, Ben[jamin] Jonson, Catiline His Conspiracy, London: […] [William Stansby?] for Walter Burre, →OCLC, Act IIII, signature I3, recto
    • And, if there fall out any preternatural immutations in the elements, any strange concussations of the earth, any direful prodigies in the sky, whither should they be imputed, but to these mighty angels; whom it pleaseth the Most High God to employ in these extraordinary services?1651 (indicated as 1652), Joseph Hall, “[The Invisible World Discovered to Spiritual Eyes, and Reduced to Useful Meditation. […].] Section IV. The Power of Angels.”, in Josiah Pratt, editor, The...
  3. To which place; also (after a noun denoting a place) to which.
    • [W]e beſche thee, leaue vs not comfortles, but ſende to vs thine holy ghoſt to comfort vs, and exalte vs vnto thy ſame place, whither our ſauiour Chriſte is gone before: […]1549 March 7, Thomas Cranmer [et al.], compilers, “The Introites, Collectes, Epistles, and Gospels, to be Used at the Celebracion of the Lordes Supper & Holye Communion, throughe the Yeare: With...
    • [T]hou ſhalt diuide the vvhole prouince of thy Land equally into three partes: that he vvhich for murder is a fugitiue, may haue neere at hand, vvhither to eſcape.1609, The Holie Bible, […] (Douay–Rheims Bible), Doway: Laurence Kellam, […], →OCLC, Deuteronomie 19:3, page 436
  4. To the place in or to which.
    • And with the same grave countenance he hurried through his breakfast and drove to the police station, whither the body had been carried.1886 January 5, Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Carew Murder Case”, in Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., →OCLC, page 38
  5. (generally) In or to any place to which; to whatever place; wherever.
    • Ah foole, goe vvith thy ſoule vvhither it goes, / A borrovved title haſt thou bought too deare.c. 1597 (date written), [William Shakespeare], The History of Henrie the Fourth; […], quarto edition, London: […] P[eter] S[hort] for Andrew Wise, […], published 1598, →OCLC, [Act V, scene iii]...
    • VVhether as He mounted up, the Nevvs He tells / To every Orb and Star; but chiefly to / Th' inquiſitive Spirits, vvhoſe ears and hearts he fils / VVith all the VVonders He had ſeen belovv, […]1648, Joseph Beaumont, “Canto VII. The Great Little One. Stanza 108.”, in Psyche: Or Loves Mysterie, […], London: […] John Dawson for George Boddington, […], →OCLC, page 104, column 1
    Synonyms:
    whithersoever

Noun (1)

whither (plural whithers)

  1. (formal, archaic except literary or poetic) A place to which someone or something goes; also, a condition to which someone or something moves.
    • To knovv the local beginnings of vvinds, is a thing vvhich requires a deep ſearch and Inquiſition, ſeeing that the VVhence and VVhither of vvinds, are things noted even in Scripture to be abſtruſe and hidden.a. 1627 (date written), Francis Bacon, “The Natural and Experimental History of Winds, &c. […]. Local Beginnings of Winds.”, in R. G., transl., edited by William Rawley, The Second Part of the...
    • Mr. [Henry Charles] Carey usually gives his reader a bird's-eye retrospect, from his balloon at the end of each stage, of the where and whither or the zigzags and dark passages of the route gone over from the starting-point, where was the man upon a solitary island picking fruit, down to his...1838 July, “Art. III.—Principles of Political Economy. Part the First. Of the Laws of the Production and the Distribution of Wealth. By Henry C. Carey, Author of an Essay on the Rate of Wages....

Verb

whither (third-person singular simple present whithers, present participle whithering, simple past and past participle whithered)

  1. (Scotland, UK, dialectal, especially, transitive) To cause (someone) to hurry; to hasten, to hurry.
  2. (Scotland, UK, dialectal, especially, transitive) To throw (something) forcefully; to hurl; also, to beat, to thrash.
  3. (Scotland, UK, dialectal, especially, intransitive) To shake (vigorously); to tremble.
  4. (Scotland, UK, dialectal, especially, intransitive) To move quickly, to rush, to whiz; also, to make a rushing sound; to whizz.
  5. (Scotland, UK, dialectal, especially, intransitive) Of the wind: to blow loudly and vigorously; to bluster; also, of an animal, etc.: to make a loud noise; to bellow, to roar.

Noun (2)

whither (plural whithers)

  1. (Scotland, UK, dialectal, especially) A state of rushed action; a haste, a hurry; also, a state of anger or excitement.
  2. (Scotland, UK, dialectal, especially) A forceful blow or hit.
  3. (Scotland, UK, dialectal, especially) An act of shaking (vigorously); a shiver, a tremble; also, a slight bout of discomfort or illness.
  4. (Scotland, UK, dialectal, especially) The sound of something moving quickly; a rush, a whiz.
  5. (Scotland, UK, dialectal, especially) A gust of wind; a bluster.
    • I felt sure now that I was in the pensionnat—sure by the beating rain on the easement; sure by the ‘wuther’ of wind amongst trees, denoting a garden outside; sure by the chill, the whiteness, the solitude, amidst which I lay.1853 January, Currer Bell [pseudonym; Charlotte Brontë], “Auld Lang Syne”, in Villette. […], volume II, London: Smith, Elder & Co., […], →OCLC, page 8

whither meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Malayalam

whither in Hindi

whither, whithersoever
जित jit
whither
जिधर jidhar

whither in Tamil

எங்கே, சேரிடம்

whither in Urdu

جہاں, جدھر

whither in Malayalam

എവിടേയ്ക്ക്, എങ്ങോട്ട്, ഏതു ദിക്കിലേക്ക്
More languagesFewer languages
whither in Arabic
إِلَى أَيْنَ ʔilā ʔayna
whither in Vietnamese
đâu

Examples of whither in a sentence

  • "Whither are we going?" inquired the lady tragically.1836 February 8, “Boz” [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], “The Great Winglebury Duel”, in Sketches by “Boz,” Illustrative of Every-day Life, and...
  • Forth from the city, while it yet slumbered, went the two poor adventurers, wandering they knew not whither.1840 April – 1841 November, Charles Dickens, “Chapter the Twelfth”, in The Old Curiosity Shop. A Tale. […], volume I, London: Chapman and...
  • The Spirit did not tarry here, but bade Scrooge hold his robe, and passing on above the moor, sped whither?1843 December 19, Charles Dickens, “Stave Three. The Second of the Three Spirits.”, in A Christmas Carol. […], London: Chapman & Hall, […]...
  • [W]hat was the use of cavalry in a time of profound peace?—and whither the deuce should the hussars ride?1847 January – 1848 July, William Makepeace Thackeray, “”, in Vanity Fair […], London: Bradbury and Evans […], published 1848, →OCLC, page...

Synonyms of whither

Antonyms

Forms of whither

Noun
pluralwhithers
Verb
third-person singular presentwhithers
present participlewhithering
past participlewhithered
pastwhithered
alternative formwuther

Origin of whither

From Middle English whider (“to what place?; into or to which; to what place, where; no matter where, to wherever”), from Old English hwider, hwæder (“to what place, where”), from Proto-Germanic *hwadrê (“to what place, where”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *kʷos (“what; which”), from *kʷ- (the primary interrogative root).

The verb is borrowed from Scots whidder, whither (“(of the wind) to bluster; to move quickly”), a frequentative form of whid (“(of wind) to gust; to move quickly”), of Scandinavian/North Germanic origin, from Old Norse hviða (“gust of wind”). Related to Middle English hwiþa, whyȝt (“breeze; wind”), Old English hwiþa, hwiþu, hweoþu (“breeze”). The noun is derived from the verb.

Words formed from whither

Words that rhyme with whither

1 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about whither

What does whither mean?
Whither means to what place; where.
What is whither in Hindi?
Whither in Hindi is जित (jit), जिधर (jidhar). See Whither meaning in Hindi.
How do you use whither in a sentence?
"Whither are we going?" inquired the lady tragically.
What part of speech is whither?
Whither can be an adverb, a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce whither?
Whither is pronounced /ˈwɪðəː/.

Words near whither in the dictionary

  1. Whitgiftian
  2. Whitgifts
  3. whith
  4. Whitham
  5. Whithams
  6. whither
  7. whither away
  8. whithered
  9. whitherever
  10. whithering
  11. Whitherne

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: whither (page history and authors); जित (Hindi) (page history and authors); whither (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); whither (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); whither (Malayalam Wiktionary) (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-whither.ogg.

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