why not
why not adverb: why is that so? (for a negative statement).
Adverb
why not (not comparable)
- Why is that so? (for a negative statement)
- I don't want to go out today. — Why not?
- Synonyms:
- why?, how come?
- Used to state that one has no objection to and approves of a proposal.
- Let's have pizza for lunch. — Yeah, why not?
- Used to introduce a proposal.
- Why not try turning the handle in the other direction to see if that opens the window?
why not meaning in Hindi, Tagalog, Arabic and Indonesian
why not in Hindi
- why not; doesn't
- ना nā
why not in Tagalog
- why is that not true
- bakit hindi
- state one has no objection
- bakit hindi
- introduce a proposal
- bakit hindi
why not in Arabic
- state one has no objection
- لِمَ لَا lima lā
why not in Indonesian
- why is that not true
- kenapa tidak
- state one has no objection
- tentu saja
- introduce a proposal
- bagaimana kalau
More languagesFewer languages
- why not in Persian
- چرا čerâ, چرا که نه؟ čerâ ke na?
- why not in Thai
- ทำไมไม่
Synonyms of why not
Questions about why not
- What does why not mean?
- Why not means why is that so? (for a negative statement).
- What is why not in Hindi?
- Why not in Hindi is ना (nā). See Why not meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is why not?
- Why not is an adverb.
Words near why not in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: why not (page history and authors); ना (Hindi) (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-au-why not.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-TranqyPoo-why not.wav.
Cite this entry: “why not.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/why_not. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.