why
/ʍaː/
Word Rarity
Common
Frequency: Zipf frequency 5.93 in modern English
12
Scrabble Score
3
Letters
1
Syllables
3
Unique Chars
Meaning
noun
intj
An exclamation used to express pleasant or unpleasant mild surprise, indignation, or impatience.
Dated; Literary
Example Sentences
Etymology
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.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: *kʷ-, why, hwȳ, *hwī, *kʷey
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ʍaː/