whenever
/wəˈnɛvɚ/
Word Rarity
Uncommon
Frequency: Zipf frequency 4.63 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
3
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
conj
At any time that.
conj
Every time that.
conj
Regardless of the time that.
conj
When.
American usage
Example Sentences
- "Visit whenever you want to."
- "I did not see the program, but Mrs. Nixon told me that you were great on the Donahue Show. As you can imagine, she is an expert on politics and she predicts that whenever you decide to run for office you will be a winner!"
- "Tomorrow I'll get up whenever the sun rises."
- "Whenever he has a pair of aces, his eyelids twitch."
- "Working around an ancient monument has meant having an archaeologist on site whenever there were excavations."
- "Income must be reported in the period in which it is earned, whenever payment is actually received."
Etymology
From Middle English whan evere, whanne ever, whanne evere, whener, when ever; equivalent to when + -ever.
Origin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /wəˈnɛvɚ/
- British English: /wəˈnɛvə/
Usage
- American usage
- Dated
- Colloquial
Phrases
whenever one turns around
1. Scottish2. from Middle English mid3. old dialectal form