why
/waɪ̯/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
General South African/waː/
why adverb: introducing a complete question. Also the alternative form of wye.
Adverb
why (not comparable)
- Introducing a complete question.
- Why is the sky blue?
- Why did you do that?
- With a negative, used rhetorically to make a suggestion.
- Why don't you ask her out for dinner?
- Introducing a verb phrase (bare infinitive clause).
- Why spend money on something you already get for free?
- Why not tell him how you feel?
- Introducing a noun or other phrase.
- Why him? Why not someone taller?
- For which cause, reason, or purpose.
- That's the reason why I did that.
- The cause, reason, or purpose for which.
- That is why the sky is blue.
- Why most of us volunteer is that we need some fresh air.
Noun (1)
why (plural whys or why's or whies)
- Reason.
- A good article will cover the who, the what, the when, the where, the why and the how.
- I don't want to know the whys or the wherefores of your decision.
Interjection
- An exclamation used to express pleasant or unpleasant mild surprise, indignation, or impatience.
- Why, that’s ridiculous!
- Why, how kind of you!
Verb
why (third-person singular simple present whys or whies, present participle whying, simple past and past participle whyed or whied)
- To ask (someone) the question "why?".
- Why indeed? But once you start whying, there's no end to it.1930, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, Assorted Articles, London: Martin Secker, page 11
Noun (2)
why (plural whies)
Also used as
why is also the alternative form of wye.
why meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
why in Hindi
- (interrogative) for what reason
- क्यों kyõ, क्यूँ kyū̃
why in Tamil
- (interrogative) for what reason
- ஏன் ēṉ, எதற்கு etaṟku
why in Marathi
- (interrogative) for what reason
- का kā
why in Urdu
- (interrogative) for what reason
- کیوں kyõ, kyū̃, کاہے kāhe
More languagesFewer languages
- why in Bengali
- কেন keno
- why in Telugu
- ఎందుకు enduku
- why in Malayalam
- എന്തുകൊണ്ട് entukoṇṭŭ, എന്തിന് entinŭ
- why in Kannada
- ಏಕೆ ēke, ಯಾಕೆ yāke
- why in Odia
- କ୍ୟାଂ Kyāñ
- why in Sanskrit
- किमर्थं kimarthaṃ, कुत kuta, किमर्थम् kimartham
- why in Sinhala
- ඇයි æyi
- why in Assamese
- কিয় kiy, কেলেই kelei, কেলৈ keloi
- why in Nepali
- किन kina
- why in Tagalog
- bakit
- why in Arabic
- لِمَاذَا limāḏā, لِمَ lima, علاش ʕlēš, علاه ʕlēh
- why in Malay
- mengapa, kenapa, kena apa, apa kena
- why in Indonesian
- mengapa, kenapa
- why in Persian
- چرا čerâ, برای چی barâye či, برای چه barâye če
- why in Thai
- ทำไม tam-mai, ไฉน chà-nǎi
- why in Vietnamese
- sao, vì sao, tại sao, lí do
- why in Myanmar
- ဘာဖြစ်လို့ bhahpraclui.
- Dhivehi
- ކީއްވެ kīvve
- Kashmiri
- کیٛازِ kyāzi, क्याज़ि kyāzi
Examples of why in a sentence
- I don’t know why he did that.
- Tell me why the moon changes phase.
- Why yes, that’s true.
- Plastics are energy-rich substances, which is why many of them burn so readily.2013 July 20, “Welcome to the plastisphere”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845:
- “Being a part of this journey with other ladies, knowing how it changed my life, that’s my why,” she told me.2022 May 11, Sandra E. Garcia, “Butt Lifts Are Booming. Healing Is No Joke.”, in The New York Times Magazine:
Synonyms of why
- how come
- to what end
- what for
- why so
- wherefore
- for why
Forms of why
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | whys |
| plural | why's |
| plural | whies |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | whys |
| third-person singular present | whies |
| present participle | whying |
| past participle | whyed |
| past | whyed |
| past participle | whied |
| past | whied |
Origin of why
From Middle English why, from Old English hwȳ (“why”), from Proto-Germanic *hwī (“by what, how”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷey, instrumental case of *kʷís (“who”), *kʷid (“what”). Cognate with Old Saxon hwī (“why”), hwiu (“how; why”), Middle High German wiu (“how, why”), archaic Danish and Norwegian Bokmål hvi (“why”), Norwegian Nynorsk kvi (“why”), Swedish vi (“why”), Faroese and Icelandic hví (“why”), Latin quī (“why”), Doric Greek πεῖ (peî, “where”), Ukrainian чи (čy, “if”), Polish czy, Czech či (“or”), Serbo-Croatian či (“if”). Compare Old English þȳ (“because, since, on that account, therefore, then”, literally “by that, for that”). See thy.
A variant of quey.
Words formed from why
- because is why
- for why
- hence why
- one will know the reason why
- that's why
- that's why they play the game
- thirteenth reason why
- this is why we can't have nice things
- why am I not surprised
- why and wherefore
- why aye
- why buy a book when you can join a library
- why buy a book when you can join the library
- why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free
- why come
- whyever
- why for
- why God invented
- why in God's name
- why in the world
- why in time
- why is the ocean near the shore
- why keep a dog and bark yourself
- why me
- why-not
- why not
- why not Zoidberg
- why oh why
- why on Earth
- whys and wherefores
- why so serious
- why the Devil
- why the dickens
- why the fuck
- whying
- eff why eye
Phrases with why
Words that rhyme with why
Questions about why
- What does why mean?
- Why means introducing a complete question.
- What is why in Hindi?
- Why in Hindi is क्यों (kyõ), क्यूँ (kyū̃). See Why meaning in Hindi.
- How do you use why in a sentence?
- I don’t know why he did that.
- What part of speech is why?
- Why can be an adverb, a noun, an interjection or a verb.
- How do you pronounce why?
- Why is pronounced /waɪ̯/.
Words near why in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: why (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.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-why.ogg, En-uk-why.ogg.
Cite this entry: “why.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/why. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.