Word.ws English Dictionary

whys and wherefores

whys and wherefores noun: the reasons or motivations for a fact, action, or decision, especially the complete set of such reasons or motivations.

Noun

whys and wherefores pl (normally plural, singular why and wherefore)

  1. (plural, plural-normally, set phrase) The reasons or motivations for a fact, action, or decision, especially the complete set of such reasons or motivations.
    • I can no more tell you the whys and wherefores of myself than I can lift myself up by the waistband and carry myself into the next county.1887, George Bernard Shaw, chapter 5, in An Unsocial Socialist
    • [I]f she noticed anything odd or out of place she would never rest until she had ferreted out the whys and wherefores thereof.1908, Lucy Maud Montgomery, chapter 1, in Anne of Green Gables
    Synonyms:
    explanation

Synonyms of whys and wherefores

Forms of whys and wherefores

singularwhy and wherefore
alternative form (rare)whies and wherefores

Questions about whys and wherefores

What does whys and wherefores mean?
Whys and wherefores means the reasons or motivations for a fact, action, or decision, especially the complete set of such reasons or motivations.
What part of speech is whys and wherefores?
Whys and wherefores is a noun.

Words near whys and wherefores in the dictionary

  1. whyncha
  2. whyness
  3. Whyo
  4. Whyos
  5. whys
  6. whys and wherefores
  7. Whysall
  8. Whysalls
  9. whysoever
  10. whyte
  11. Whyte notation

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: whys and wherefores (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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