when
/ˈwɛn/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 6.37 in modern English
10
Scrabble Score
4
Letters
1
Syllables
4
Unique Chars
Meaning
adv
At what time? At which time? Upon which occasion or circumstance? Used to introduce direct or indirect questions about time.
adv
At what time? At which time? Upon which occasion or circumstance? Used to introduce direct or indirect questions about time.
Humorous
adv
The time at, on or during which.
conj
At (or as soon as) that time that; at the (or any and every) time that; if.
Example Sentences
- "When will they arrive?"
- "Do you know when they arrived?"
- "I don't know when they arrived."
- "When they arrived is unknown."
- "What words are used as interrogative pronouns? — Give examples. When are the words, what, which, and that, called adj. pron.? When are they called interrogative pronominal adjectives?"
- "The site's all bugged. Fix when?"
Etymology
From Middle English when(ne), whan(ne), from Old English hwonne, from Proto-West Germanic *hwannē, from Proto-West Germanic *hwan, from Proto-Germanic *hwan (“at what time, when”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷís (interrogative base). Cognate with Scots whan (“when”), Dutch wanneer (“when”), wan (“when”) and wen (“when, if”), Low German wannehr (“when”), wann (“when”) and wenn (“if, when”), German wann (“when”) and wenn (“when, if”), Gothic 𐍈𐌰𐌽 (ƕan, “when, how”), Latin quandō (“when”). More at who. Interjection sense: a playful misunderstanding of "say when" (i.e. say something / speak up when you want me to stop) as "say [the word] when".