why

Meaning

1. For what cause, reason, or purpose.
2. For what cause, reason, or purpose.
3. For what cause, reason, or purpose.
4. For what cause, reason, or purpose.
5. For which cause, reason, or purpose.
6. The cause, reason, or purpose for which.

what for

for what reason

for what purpose

for what

why is that

in what way

whereby

you see

for which reason

the reason why

what the hell

for what cause

by what ? whence

it has no meaning

how can one tolerate

after all

interrogative particle

what kind of

what’s up

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ʍaɪ/

From Middle English why, from Old English hwȳ (“why”), from Proto-Germanic *hwī (“by what, how”), from Proto-Indo-European *kʷey, instrumental case of *kʷis (“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.